THE

MODERN
THEATRE
THE THEATRE BY ROBERT COHEN
CHAPTER 8

MODERN AND
POSTMODERN
Previous 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

REALISM
was 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 19 th

and early 20th centuries in all aspects of expression and
remains an enormously significant style today.

REALISM WAS CONCEIVED

AS A LABORATORY
Objectify society in an effort to study
it scientifically
Thus realism adhered to the scientific
method

THE LOWER DEPTHS AT

MOSCOW ART THEATRE (1902)
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

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 Williams THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA
London, 2005.

PIONEERS OF
REALISM
Henrik Ibsen, 1828-1906

A Dolls House (pictured)

Hedda Gabler
Ghosts
An 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 CHEKHOVS
UNCLE VANYA (1899)

CHEKHOVS
TECHNIQUE
He 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 rememberthree 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?
VERSHININ
Yes. 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.
VERSHININ
So you are Olga Sergeyevna, the eldest. . . . And you are Marya. . . . And you are Irina, the youngest. . . .
OLGA
You come from Moscow?
VERSHININ
Yes. I studied in Moscow. I used to visit you in Moscow. . . .

CHEKHOVS 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 DAISY

BROADWAY 2010
Realistic plays do not necessarily
require 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. Zolas 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 recounts
the seduction of a Counts daughter by her fathers groom.
The play ends with the Miss Julies suicide and the grooms
return to this duties. The play dates from the same time period
as Ibsens A DOLLS HOUSE and marked a turning point in
Strindbergs 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 by
ARTHUR SCHNITZLER

The Max Ophuls

film (1950)

EUGENE ONEILLS

LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (1956)

1888-1953

Broadway, 2003

AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHTS
INFLUENCED BY REALISM AND
NATURALISM
Arthur Miller
Tennessee Williams
August Wilson
Wendy Wasserstein
David Mamet
Neil LaBute

Millers DEATH OF A SALESMAN

BRAIN DENNEHY AS
WILLY LOMAN (1999)

ANTIREALISM MOVEMEMTS
SYMBOLISM (PARIS, 1880S)
Maeterlincks 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
Paul Fort (1870-1960)

Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949)

SYMBOLISTS
Defined (in part) by competition between
competing organizations
Theatre dArt
Paul Fort
Theatre Illustre
Andre Antoine
Their theatres 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

MAETERLINCKS
THE INTRUDER (1890)
A contemporary
production of
The Intruder

OTHER NOTABLE WORKS

OF SYMBOLISM

Alfred Jarrys UBU ROI (1898)

1904

STRINDBERGS
A DREAM PLAY (1902)

Directed by Diane Paulus, 2006

IBSENS
WHEN WE DEAD AWAKEN (1899)
A Swedish production, 2008

A NEW STYLE OF
PRODUCTION
Realistic directors like Antoine and
Stanislavsky were challenged by
scores of new directors. Notable
among them was another director
from the Moscow Art Theatre...

...Vsevolod
Meyerhold
(1874-1940)

MEYERHOLDS 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
Jarrys UBU ROI (1896)

EXPRESSIONISM
ONeills THE HAIRY APE (1921)

EXPRESSIONISM
Elmer Rice THE ADDING MACHINE (1923)

METATHEATRE
Six Characters in Search of an Author 1921
by 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 Sartre
1905-1980

THEATRE OF THE
ABSURD

Samuel Beckett
(1906-1989)

ALBERT CAMUS
(1913-1960)

EUGENE IONESCO
1909-1994

EDWARD ALBEE
1928-

The Sandbox, 1959

THEATRE OF ALIENATION
(EPIC THEATRE)

Bertolt Brecht
1898-1956

GOOD PERSON OF
SETZUAN (1943)

COMEDY OF CONTEMPORARY
MANNERS
Alan Ayckbourn
(1939)

BEDROOM FARCE
1977

NEIL SIMON
1927-

BAREFOOT IN THE
PARK (1963)

THE DINNER PARTY

(2000)

POLITICAL SATIRE

DAVID MAMET
1947-

Race (2009)

November (2007)

CARYL CHURCHILL
(1938- )
Serious Money, 1987

URINETOWN
(1999)

2010

BLOODY BLOODY
ANDREW JACKSON (2010)

created & performed by Mike Daisey

directed 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

SUMMARY
MODERN THEATRE
Todays theatre is and can be anything and
everything. As styles merge, blend, morph,
reconfigureall theatre remains essentially one of
two forms:
Representational (realism)
-orPresentational (stylized)
Individual artists will continue to explore old and
new forms so long as audiences come.