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.

Film Trailer for 2014 film of MISS JULIE

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.