THE MODERN THEATRETHE THEATRE BY ROBERT COHENCHAPTER 8
MODERN AND POSTMODERNPrevious ages include –
Classical (Greece and Rome)
Medieval (Mystery and Morality Plays)
Renaissance (The Elizabethan Age in England)
The Royal Theatre (The Court Theatre of Spain and France)
The Restoration
The Romantic Theatre (Neoclassical)
THEATRE IN THE EAST India (Sanskrit drama, Kathakali)
China (Xiqu)
Japan (Noh, Kabuki, Bunraku)
MODERN AND POSTMODERN
Modern drama is said to date from about 1875.
• Fed by revolutions in the US and France in the 18th century.• Simultaneous to the political revolutions were revolutions in
philosophy, science and religion.
Important treatises of the “modern era”
• Darwin ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES• Karl Marx DAS KAPITAL
KARL MARX
CHARLES DARWIN
REALISMwas the first expression of a modern theatre was a theatre of experimentation
REALISM
Realism as a reaction against ROMANTICISM sought to develop an aesthetic that was not abstract, rather, one that was “like life.”
REALISM
The romantics and neoclassicists sought art that was like life or an idealized life. The realists sought to present art that was life.
REALISM
As a form of artistic expression, it was tested in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in all aspects of expression and remains an enormously significant style today.
Objectify society in an effort to study it scientifically
Thus realism adhered to the scientific method
REALISM WAS CONCEIVED AS A LABORATORY
Early on, the proscenium stage was modified to accommodate a new form of scenery – THE BOX SET and the aesthetic became the “theatre of the fourth wall removed”
THE LOWER DEPTHS ATMOSCOW ART THEATRE (1902)
TECHNIQUES OF REALISM
PRESENT THE AUDIENCE WITH “EVIDENCE” AND PERMIT EACH SPECTATOR TO ARRIVE AT HIS OR HER OWN CONCLUSIONS...
Woody Harrelson in a realistic production of Tennessee William’s THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANALondon, 2005.
PIONEERS OF REALISM
Henrik Ibsen, 1828-1906
A Doll’s House (pictured)Hedda GablerGhostsAn Enemy of the People
ANDRE ANTOINE(1858-1943)FOUNDED THE THEATRE LIBRE IN 1897 TO STAGE REALISTIC DRAMA
DAMAGED GOODS BY EUGENE BRIEUX (1858-1932)WAS A REALISTIC PLAY ABOUT SYPHILIS“Brieux was among the few of his day to treat the question in a frank manner, showing that the most dangerous phase of venereal disease is ignorance and fear, and that if treated openly and intelligently, it is perfectly curable. Brieux also emphasizes the importance of kindness and consideration for those who contract the affliction, since it has nothing to do with what is commonly called evil, immorality, or impurity.”
GERHARD HAUPTMANN (1862-1946) GERMANY
The Weavers, 1892
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW (1856-1950)
Misalliance
Mrs Warrens Profession
MAJOR BARBARA (1905)
ANTON CHEKHOV(1860-1904) RUSSIA
CHEKHOV READING THE SEA GULL TO THE CAST AT THE MOSCOW ART THEATRE (1896)
STANISLASKI AS ASTROV IN CHEKHOV’S UNCLE VANYA (1899)
CHEKHOV’S TECHNIQUEHe created deeply complex relationships with his characters. As an example see this scene from THE THREE SISTERS (1901)
VERSHININ I have the honor to introduce myself, my name is Vershinin. I am very, very glad to be in your house at last.
IRINA Please sit down. We are delighted to see you.
VERSHININ (with animation) How glad I am, how glad I am! But there are three of you sisters. I remember—three little girls. I don't remember your faces, but that your father, Colonel Prozorov, had three little girls I remember perfectly, and saw them with my own eyes. How time passes! Hey-ho, how it passes!
IRINA From Moscow? You have come from Moscow?
VERSHININYes. Your father was in command of a battery there, and I was an officer in the same brigade. [To MASHA] Your face, now, I seem to remember.
MASHA I don't remember you.
VERSHININSo you are Olga Sergeyevna, the eldest. . . . And you are Marya. . . . And you are Irina, the youngest. . . .
OLGAYou come from Moscow?
VERSHININYes. I studied in Moscow. I used to visit you in Moscow. . . .
CHEKHOV’S REALISTIC STYLE
Although Masha and Vershinin will become lovers in the course of the action, they are seen here as distant and engaging in the type of small talk that people engage in real life.
This type of scene required a realistic form of acting to develop the Subtext of the scene which is not explicit in the text. THE REALISTIC DRAMA gave rise to a realistic style of acting as practiced at the Moscow Art Theatre.
DRIVING MISS DAISYBROADWAY 2010
Realistic plays do not necessarilyrequire realistic scenery.
NATURALISM
Emile Zola (1840-1902)
NATURALISM VS. REALISM
• To proponents of naturalism, behavior was predetermined by environment
• Social ills were not changeable• They sought to express art as a “slice of life...”• ...and sought to eliminate every vestige of dramatic
convention. Zola’s manifesto declared that “all the great successes of the stage are triumphs over convention.”
These ideas are clearly expressed in three works...
MISS JULIE (1892)AUGUST STRINDBERG
This domestic “tragedy” plays out in real time and recountsthe seduction of a Count’s daughter by her father’s groom.The play ends with the Miss Julie’s suicide and the groom’s return to this duties. The play dates from the same time periodas Ibsen’s A DOLL’S HOUSE and marked a turning point inStrindberg’s style of writing.
LA RONDE (1900)ARTHUR SCHNITZLER
Arthur Schnitzler's play depicts love as a bitterly comic merry-go-round and was deemed immoral by American censors and banned from entering the country for many years. It is told in ten sketches in which an interconnecting group of lovers changes partners until the liaisons come full circle...
Nicole Kidman was featured in the English Version of La Ronde, Blue Room
LA RONDE byARTHUR SCHNITZLER
The Max Ophuls film (1950)
EUGENE O’NEILL’S LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (1956)
Broadway, 20031888-1953
AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHTS INFLUENCED BY REALISM AND NATURALISM
Arthur Miller
Tennessee Williams
August Wilson
Wendy Wasserstein
David Mamet
Neil LaBute
Miller’s DEATH OF A SALESMAN
BRAIN DENNEHY AS WILLY LOMAN (1999)
ANTIREALISM MOVEMEMTSSYMBOLISM (PARIS, 1880S)
Maeterlinck’s THE BLUEBIRD, 1896
TENANTS OF SYMBOLISM
• Reaction against realism which expressed outward reality
• Focus upon inner realities that cannot be directly perceived
• Replace reality with poetry, imagery, novelty, fantasy, extravagence, profundity, audacity, charm and superhuman magnitude
• Purity of vision rather than accuracy of observation was the symbolists’ aim
PROPONENTS OF SYMBOLISM IN FRANCE
Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949)
Paul Fort (1870-1960)
SYMBOLISTS
Defined (in part) by competition between competing organizations
• Theatre d’Art Paul Fort• Theatre Illustre Andre Antoine
Their theatre’s “war” brought writers like Arthur Rumbaud, Maurice Maeterlinck and Edgar Allen Poe to the stage and artists like Pierre Bonnard and Maurice Denis
PAUL FORT PRODUCED MAETERLINCK’S
THE INTRUDER (1890)
A contemporary production of The Intruder
OTHER NOTABLE WORKS OF SYMBOLISM
Alfred Jarry’s UBU ROI (1898) 1904
STRINDBERG’SA DREAM PLAY (1902)
Directed by Diane Paulus, 2006
IBSEN’SWHEN WE DEAD AWAKEN (1899)
A Swedish production, 2008
A NEW STYLE OF PRODUCTIONRealistic directors like Antoine and Stanislavsky were challenged by scores of new directors. Notable among them was another director from the Moscow Art Theatre...
...VsevolodMeyerhold(1874-1940)
MEYERHOLD’S THE MAGNIFICENT CUCKOLD (1922)
THE ERA OF “ISMS”
FUTURISM
DADAISM
IDEALISM
IMPRESSIONISM
EXPRESSIONISM
CONSTRUTIVISM
SURREALISM
...ALL ARE FORMS OF STYLIZED THEATRE
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1920
FRENCH AVANT-GARDE
Jarry’s UBU ROI (1896)
EXPRESSIONISM
O’Neill’s THE HAIRY APE (1921)
EXPRESSIONISM
Elmer Rice THE ADDING MACHINE (1923)
METATHEATRE
Six Characters in Search of an Author – 1921by Luigi Pirandello
THEATRE OF CRUELTY
Antonin Artaud (1896-1948)JET OF BLOOD (1925)Theatre Alfred Jarry (1926)The Theatre and Its Double (1938)
PHILOSPOHICAL MELODRAMA
Jean-Paul Sartre1905-1980
THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
Samuel Beckett(1906-1989)
ALBERT CAMUS(1913-1960)
EUGENE IONESCO1909-1994
EDWARD ALBEE1928-
The Sandbox, 1959
THEATRE OF ALIENATION (EPIC THEATRE)
Bertolt Brecht1898-1956
GOOD PERSON OF SETZUAN (1943)
COMEDY OF CONTEMPORARY MANNERS
Alan Ayckbourn(1939)
BEDROOM FARCE1977
NEIL SIMON1927-
BAREFOOT IN THE PARK (1963)
THE DINNER PARTY(2000)
POLITICAL SATIRE
DAVID MAMET1947-
November (2007)
Race (2009)
CARYL CHURCHILL(1938- )
Serious Money, 1987
URINETOWN(1999)
2010
BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON (2010)
created & performed by Mike Daiseydirected by Jean-Michele Gregory
Appropriate for ages 14 and up.Running Time: Approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes (no intermission)
WATER (2013) A PLAY ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME
SUMMARYMODERN THEATRE
Today’s theatre is and can be anything and everything. As styles merge, blend, morph, reconfigure—all theatre remains essentially one of two forms:
Representational (realism)
-or-
Presentational (stylized)
Individual artists will continue to explore old and new forms so long as audiences come.