Drama and Dramatic Arts

Article Outline

Introduction; Characteristics of Drama; Kinds of Drama; Purposes of Drama; History of Western Drama

Expressionism and Epic Drama

Expressionism emerged in Germany just before World War I and remained a major movement in the German theater until the mid-1920s. Complaining that realist drama was concerned only with surface reality, the expressionists attempted to capture inner feelings as well, often distorting external reality to reflect the consciousness of the central character. In an effort to escape the specificity of realism in search of more general truths, expressionist characters were often presented as types—the Father, the Worker, or the Wife, for example. Many of the plays deal with basic family conflicts, such as Der Sohn (The Son, 1916) by Walter Hasenclever, but even more common are plays of social commentary. Notable examples include Seeschlacht (1918; Naval Encounter, 1969) by Reinhard Goering, which deals with the war, and two plays that address the dehumanizing effect of modern technological and capitalistic society. They are Von morgen bis mitternachts (1916; From Morn to Midnight, 1922) by Georg Kaiser and Masse-mensch (1920; Masses and Man, 1923) by Ernst Toller. Expressionism also had a strong influence in Eastern Europe, most notably in the plays of Czech dramatist Karel Čapek, whose futurist drama RUR (1921; translated 1923) brought the word robot (from the Czech word for “work”) into the European vocabulary.

Bertolt Brecht, the most influential German dramatist of the 20th century, began his career at the height of expressionism, which is clearly reflected in such early works as Trommeln in der Nacht (1922; Drums in the Night, 1971). Although he retained certain features of expressionist drama, including its episodic structure and social concerns, he turned away from its subjectivism and created a new kind of drama, which he called epic. This drama sought through theatrical means to diminish the audience’s emotional involvement and encourage rational responses to the material presented. Much debate has focused on whether Brecht actually achieved this goal in such works as Die Dreigroschenoper (1928; The Threepenny Opera, 1964) or Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (written 1937; produced 1941; translated as Mother Courage and Her Children, 1941). But Brecht’s works were nevertheless among the most widely produced and influential plays of the 20th century.

Developments in the United States

A substantial playwriting tradition existed in the United States throughout the 19th century but attracted little international attention. Following World War I, however, American dramatists began to receive recognition, led by Eugene O’Neill, the outstanding figure of the early 20th century. Very much aware of European experiments in drama, O'Neill utilized a wide variety of dramatic styles, including symbolism in The Fountain (1925), expressionism in The Hairy Ape (1922), and realism in Desire Under the Elms (1924).

Among the various European antirealistic movements, only expressionism had much effect in the United States, primarily in plays with a strong social message. Examples include The Adding Machine (1923) by Elmer Rice, a fable about man's dehumanization in a technological age, and Johnny Johnson (1936), an antiwar spectacle by Paul Green. Expressionism was also apparent in critiques of the capitalist system—comic in Beggar on Horseback (1924) by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly and militantly serious in such John Howard Lawson plays as Processional (1925). Elements of expressionism, combined with a complex mixture of realism and theatricality, marked the most popular of all American experimental dramas, Our Town (1938), a hymn to the human experience by Thornton Wilder.

Post-World War II Drama

Although many dramatists of the 1930s continued to produce important works during the 1940s and 1950s, the theatrical landscape in Europe and the United States changed significantly after World War II (1939-1945). Among the most influential postwar movements was theater of the absurd.

European Trends

In the years immediately following World War II, the philosophy of existentialism gained many followers in France and elsewhere. Existentialism argued that the universe contained no fixed and unchanging set of moral codes, and that each individual must create his or her own order and morality. Two of the leading philosophers of this movement, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, were also important dramatists. They created realistic dramas of contemporary moral conflicts, such as Sartre's Morts sans sépulture (1946; Men without Shadows, 1949); historical dramas, such as Camus's Caligula (1944; translated 1958); and even reworkings of mythology, such as Sartre's version of the ancient Greek story of Orestes, Les mouches (1943; The Flies, 1946).

Theater of the Absurd

Despite the assumption of an irrational universe, Sartre and Camus created dramas—whatever their settings—that essentially followed the traditional rules of rational construction and action. Around 1950, however, a new group of playwrights, much influenced philosophically by Camus and Sartre, created a revolution in European drama by taking the irrational into the structure, motivations, and language of their plays. Although very different in style, these dramatists shared a rejection of traditional cause-and-effect realistic drama, and as a group came to be known as the absurdists (see Theater of the Absurd). The term comes from a 1942 essay by Camus, Le mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus, 1955), which called the human condition absurd because humans continued to seek order and reason in a universe that was not built on these principles.

The first absurdist to gain attention was Arthur Adamov of France, whose early works, such as La parodie (The Parody, 1952), were influenced philosophically by existentialism and structurally by surrealism. The popular La cantatrice chauve (1950; The Bald Soprano, 1956) by Eugène Ionesco of France systematically attacked all the conventional rules of dramatic action, motivation, and language—most notably, in the characters’ inability to communicate with each other. Ionesco called it an antiplay. The first great success of the absurdist movement and probably the most known of all its plays, En attendant Godot (1953; Waiting for Godot, 1954), was written in French by Irish-born playwright Samuel Beckett, who came to be recognized as one of the major dramatists of the late 20th century. The two tramps of his play, Didi and Gogo, play pointless games to pass the time waiting for a savior who never comes. They have become two of the most familiar figures in modern theater. The success of Godot brought attention to Adamov, Ionesco, and Jean Genet, who was also from France. Genet created dark fables of power, submission, and masquerade, including Le balcon (1956; The Balcony, 1958), which is set in the illusory world of an elegant brothel as a revolution erupts outside. Power and cruelty also mark the absurdist works of Spanish-born French playwright Fernando Arrabal, such as Le cimetière des voitures (1958; The Automobile Graveyard, 1960).

The theater of the absurd had only a limited impact in England, but several playwrights did adopt its approaches and principles. In 1957 N. F. Simpson brought absurdist comedy to England with his The Resounding Tinkle. The most important English dramatist with a clear connection to the absurd is Tom Stoppard, who began a series of brilliant verbal comedies with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1966). Stoppard placed these minor characters from Hamlet at the center of the play, with characterizations clearly indebted to Beckett's two famous tramps. The early plays of Peter Shaffer, most notably The Private Ear (1962) and The Public Eye (1962), also show their debt to absurdist theater in their humorous examinations of a hostile universe. His later and better known works, including Amadeus (1979), are much closer to realism, even though his plays often jump back and forth within space and time. Critics have also suggested a relationship between the absurdist theater and the works of Harold Pinter, one of England's leading dramatists during the 1960s. Although the setting and dialogue of a Pinter play, such as The Caretaker (1960), suggests traditional realistic or naturalistic drama, a feeling of mystery and menace beneath the surface reality distances it from the realist tradition.