DRAMA

At the turn of the 20th century several strands of new drama were developing in the UK after in a long time was not show the significant development. In the era, there were some dramatists who created their works and the most prominent one was George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950). George Bernard Shaw was an outspoken member of the Fabian Society committed to social reform and considered by many to be subversive. His satirical and often humorous writing included uncomfortable topics such as religion and prostitution and he challenged the morality of his bourgeois audiences. This dramatization of contemporary issues shocked audiences and led to censorship of some of his plays by the Lord Chamberlain. The works of George Bernard Shaw included the experiences that were had by the human such as about religion, politics, ethics, gender and the others. The examples of his works were Arms and the Man(1894), was a satire that related to the power and grandeur of arms, then The Man of Destiny (1897), was a mock-heroic to Napoleon, You Never Can Tell was a joke about new woman, Man and Superman (1905) was describe about woman as the realization of the will of god for viability of human being and many more. The other Dramatist who was known in this era was William Poel (1852-1934). He was an English actor, theatrical manager and dramatist best known for his presentations of Shakespeare. He took on the name Poel following a misspelling of his own name on a theatre billing. At St. George's Hall, London, in 1881 he revived Hamlet, using the text of the first quarto and doing without scenery. From 1881 to 1883 he was manager of Royal Victoria Hall, London, and then for a year manager of F. R. Benson's company. In 1894 William Poel founded the Victorian Stage Society and began to produce Shakespeare's plays in as near to Elizabethan conditions as he could, using galleried halls such as the Inner Temple. Poel believed that realistic settings worked against the poetic nature of Shakespeare's text. Poel's work was regarded as a quirky fringe event but was to have a big influence on Granville Barker. His work affected many theatre practitioners, most of all Harley Granville Barker. His presentations included Shakespeare's Measure for Measure (1893) and Two Gentlemen of Verona (1910), plays by Marlowe and Ben Jonson, Milton's Samson Agonistes (1900)

and Swinburne's Locrine (1900). Poel also dramatized W. D. Howells's A Foregone Conclusion under the title Priest and Painter (produced 1884) and Baring-Gould's novel Mehala (produced 1886).