20th century post war theatre

8/13/2019 20th Century Post War Theatre

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20THCENTURYPOSTWAR

THEATRE


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HISTORICALBACKGROUND

World War II left many haunting questions:

How could a civilized world engaged in a war thatresulted in over 35 million deaths?

How could rational societies undertake genocide?

Would the atomic bomb result in annihilation of thehuman race?

Is humanity as rational as civilized as philosophers

claimed?

Could God exist and allow the destruction of somany innocent human beings?

Are individuals responsible for group actions?


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EXISTENTIALISM

Individual human beings are understood as having fullresponsibility for creating the meanings of their own lives

A central proposition of existentialism is that existenceprecedes essence, that is that a human being's existenceprecedes and is more fundamental than any meaning whichmay be ascribed to human life: man defines his reality

Life is meaningless except I choose ___________ meaning.

The fact that we exist is more important that any of the essencesthat we choose do define it with

We can choose to behave ethically or unethically to anyone we meet


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THEATREOFCRUELTY

Antonin Artaud believed that westerntheatre needed to be totallytransformed

Theatre was a sensory experienceviewers senses should bebombarded

Theatre is a double, a copy of life andrealism is a double of everydayordinary existence, people in families,going about their daily tasks, but thatis not important

When we go through life, we arehiding what is really going on

What is really going on is muchdarker, a wild uncontrolled,seething mass of passions, fears,insecurities, loneliness, violence


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ARTAUDSAYS:

Without an element of cruelty at the root of every spectacle, the

theater is not possible. In our present state of degeneration it isthrough the skin that metaphysics must be made to re-enter ourmindsAntonin Artaud, Theatre and its Double

Theatre should be a double of that life, not real lifeit should be cruel,but cruel only to be kind, only to force those feelings out because thefact that everyday life wants to paper over real life and all it does makesit worse

Theatre needs to be a purging, take life underneath life to bring it up to

the surface

If not purged, when this explodes its going to be worse than anyoneimagined

What would lead a person to hack up their neighbor? They exploded, thepressure built up by trying to make everything seem fine when it was not

fine


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ABSURDISM

Martin EsslinBritish journalist who wasobserving Beckett, Ionesco, etc, and noticedsimilarities in their writingsdubbed them

Theatre of the Absurd

The Purpose of Absurdism is to convince us thatsome abstraction or another isabsurd/meaningless

The play then becomes the objective correlativeof their argument the play is the point

Metaphorical, outside the range of our existenceand question things that we always think about


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ABSURDISTCHARACTERISTICS

Belief that much of what happens in life cannot be explained logically

Attempt to reflect this absurdity in dramatic action

Plots do not have traditional climactic or episodic structure

Frequently nothing seems to happen because the plot moves in a circle

Characters are not realistic and little information about them is given

Setting is a strange, unrecognizable location or a topsy-turvy realistic world

Language is telegraphic or sparsedialogue seems to make little sense andthe characters fail to communicate:

Mr. Smith: Take a circle, caress it, and it will turn vicious.

Mrs. Smith: A schoolmaster teaches his pupils to read, but the cat suckles heryoung when they are small.

Mr. Smith: Nevertheless, it was the cow that gave us tails.


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SAMUELBECKETT(1906-1989)

Dramas deal with thedullness of routine, thefutility of human action andthe inability of humans to

communicate

Plays:

Waiting for Godot (1953)

Endgame (1957)

Krapps Last Tape (1958)

Play (1963)


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WAITINGFORGODOT

(1952) The plot concerns Vladimir (also called Didi)

and Estragon (also called Gogo), who arriveat a pre-specified roadside location in orderto await the arrival of someone namedGodot. Vladimir and Estragon, who appearto be tramps, pass the time in conversation,and sometimes in conflict. Though theymake vague allusions to the nature of their

circumstances and to their reasons formeeting Godot, the audience never learnswho Godot is or why he is important.

They are soon interrupted by the arrival ofPozzo, a cruel but lyrically gifted man whoclaims to own the land they stand on, andhis servant Lucky, whom he appears to

control by means of a lengthy rope.

After Pozzo and Lucky depart, a boy arriveswith a message supposedly from Godot,which states that Godot will not cometoday, "but surely to-morrow."

The second act follows a similarpattern to the first, but when Pozzoand Lucky arrive, Pozzo hasinexplicably gone blind and Lucky hasgone dumb. Again the boy arrives in

order to announce that Godot will notappear. The much-quoted ending ofthe play goes as follows:

Vladimir:Well? Shall we go?

Estragon:Yes, let's go.

They do not move.


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INTERPRETATION

OFGODOT

The intentionally uneventful and

repetitive plot of Waiting forGodotcan be seen as symbolizingthe tedium and meaninglessnessof human life

The audience never learns whoGodot is or the nature of hisbusiness with Vladimir and

Estragon

Waiting for Godotis not a playabout nothingness or nothinghappening, per se, but rather isabout the idea that true meaningexists in the present moment ofthe act.

It suggests a stable moment oftruth that is always already real,because it is in a state of existingin the present.


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EUGENEIONESCO(1912-1994)

Often turned his charactersinto caricatures andpresented comiccharacters who losecontrol of their ownexistence

Concerned with the futilityof communication

Plays:

The Bald Soprano (1949)

The Lesson (1951)

The Chairs (1952)


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THELESSON(1951) A male teacher teaches a

lesson to a young femalestudent who is good ataddition and multiplicationbut can not subtract, so hekills her.

The message is that yourteachers are trying to kill youeducation is trying to forcepeoples minds to do things

they cant do and you wontsucceed, and it will kill you

Trying to show how people inan education setting areforcing them to change theirmindseducation is about

coercion


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THEBALD

SOPRANO(1949)

The Smiths are a traditional family fromLondon, who have invited another family,the Martins, over for a visit. They are

joined later by the Smiths' maid, Mary, andthe local fire chief, who is also a friend andpossibly former lover of Mary's. The twofamilies engage in meaningless banter,telling stories and relating nonsensicalpoems. As the fire chief turns to leave, hementions "the bald soprano" in passing,which has a very unsettling effect on theothers. Mrs. Smith replies that "she alwayswears her hair in the same style."

The Bald Sopranoappears to have beenwritten as a continuous loop. The finalscene contains stage instructions to startthe performance over from the verybeginning, with the Martin familysubstituted for the Smith family and vice

versa.

Many suggest that the theme expressesthe futility of meaningful communicationin modern society.

The script is charged with non sequitursthat give the impression that thecharacters are not even listening to eachother in their frantic efforts to make their


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HAROLDPINTER(1930- )

Comedy of Menacefrighten and entertain atthe same time

Feels no need to explain why somethinghappens or who a character is

Characters lack explanation of backgrounds ormotives

Introduction of menacing outside forces

Dialogue captures pauses, evasions, andincoherence of modern speech

The Pinter Pause

Pinter is known for use of unbearable silence,with many meticulously considered andimmensely significant pauses written into hisscripts.

What the characters don'tsay is just as

important as the words that dopass their lips. Pinter actually writes silence. When played

Plays:

The Dumb-waiter (1957)

The Birthday Party (1957)

The Homecoming (1965)


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THEBIRTHDAYPARTY(1957) Taken at face value, the play concerns Stanley, a failedpiano player, who lives in a boarding house (run by

Meg and Petey), in a British seaside town. On hisbirthday, Stanley is visited by two men, Goldberg andMcCann. A supposedly innocent birthday party quicklybecomes a nightmare as Stanley is psychologicallytortured, Meg is strangled, and Lulu is sexuallyassaulted.

It is quickly learned that very little of the expositoryinformation can be taken at face value.

In Act I, Stanley describes his career saying "I've playedthe piano all over the world. All over the country" andthen after a pause simply "I once gave a concert."

Much of the plot revolves around the fact that Meg isplanning to celebrate Stanley's birthday; a fact that hedenies several times throughout the play. (Meg claimshe doesn't know that it's his birthday because she'skeeping it a secret.)

Although Stanley at one point of the birthday party

begins to strangle Meg, she has no memory of it thenext morning, quite possibly because she had drunk too


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SELECTIVEREALISM

Type of realism that heightens certaindetails of action, scenery, and dialogue

while omitting others

The play is set in a realistic world, butcontains unrealistic elements

Example: having a narrator or flashbacks

Playwrights:

Arthur Miller

Tennessee Williams


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ARTHURMILLER(1915-2005)

Focuses on failure, guilt,

responsibility for ones

own actions, and the

effects of society on theindividual

Plays:

Death of a Salesman (1949)

The Crucible (1953)


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DEATHOFASALESMAN(1949) Often classified as a modern tragedy of the common man

Willy Loman has been a traveling salesman for thirty-fouryears. He likes to think of himself as being vital to the NewEngland territory. He asks his wife Linda about his sons, whoare home for the first time in years. Willy has troubleunderstanding why Biff, his thirty-four year old son, cannotfind a job and keep it. Biff is attractive and was a star football

player in high school with several scholarships; however, hecould not finish his education, for he flunked math. When Biffwent to Boston to find his father and explain the failure tohim, he found Willy in his hotel room having an affair with astrange woman. Afterwards, Biff held a grudge against hisfather, never trusting him again.

Willy explains to his sons that the important things in life are to be well liked and to be attractive. WhileBiff plans to start his own business with his brother Happy, Willy goes to his boss where he is told thathe cannot even represent the firm in New England any more. This news turns Willy's life upside- down.Suddenly unemployed, he feels frightened and worthless.

Biff admits that he is tired of living a life filled with illusion and plans to tell his father not to expectanything from him anymore. Biff tries to explain to Willy that he has no real skills and no leadershipability. In order to save his father from disappointment, he suggests that they never see one anotheragain. Willy still refuses to listen to what Biff is saying; he tells Biff how great he is and how successfulhe can become. Biff is frustrated because Willy refuses to face the truth. In anger, Biff breaks down andsobs, telling Willy just to forget about him.

Willy decides to kill himself, for Biff would get twenty thousand dollars of insurance money to start hisown business and make it a decent living. At Willy's funeral, no one is present. He dies a pathetic,


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TENNESSEEWILLIAMS(1911-1983)

Common theme running through hisworks is the plight of societys outcasts

Outsiders trapped in a hostile

environment

Characters are usually victims who areunable to comprehend their world

Uses lyrical and poetic language andsymbolism to create compassion for

characters

Plays:

The Glass Menagerie (1945)

A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)


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A STREETCARNAMEDDESIRE(1947) Set in the French Quarter of New Orleans during

the restless years following World War Two, ASTREETCAR NAMED DESIRE is the story ofBlanche DuBois, a fragile and neurotic woman ona desperate prowl for someplace in the world tocall her own.

After being exiled from her hometown of Laurel,Mississippi, for seducing a seventeen-year-oldboy at the school where she taught English,Blanche explains her unexpected appearance onStanley and Stella's (Blanche's sister) doorstep asnervous exhaustion. This, she claims, is the resultof a series of financial calamities which haverecently claimed the family plantation, BelleReve.

Suspicious, Stanley, a sinewy and brutish man, isas territorial as a panther. He tells Blanche hedoesn't like to be swindled and demands to seethe bill of sale. This encounter defines Stanleyand Blanche's relationship. But Stanley and Stellaare deeply in love. Blanche's efforts to imposeherself between them only enrages the animalinside Stanley.

When Mitch -- a card-playing buddy ofStanley's -- arrives on the scene, Blanche

begins to see a way out of herpredicament. Mitch, himself alone in theworld, reveres Blanche as a beautiful andrefined woman. Yet, as rumors ofBlanche's past in Auriol begin to catch upto her, her circumstances becomeunbearable.


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BROADWAY Broadway has always

been traditionally

oriented to plays that

usually appeal topopular tastes, which

is why most of the

popular productions

since World War II

have been MUSICALS


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FAMOUSMUSICALSFROMTHISERABY:

Rogers and Hammerstein

Oklahoma! (1943)

South Pacific (1949)

The King and I (1951)

The Sound of Music (1959)

Annie Get Your Gun (1946) by Irving Berlin

Kiss Me Kate (1948)by Cole Porter

Guys and Dolls (1950)by Frank Loesser

My Fair Lady (1956)by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe

West Side Story (1957)by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim


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OFF-BROADWAY

Movement developed in the late 1940s as a reaction

to Broadway commercialism

Primary goal was to provide an outlet forexperimental and innovative works

Dedicated to introducing new playwrights and reviving

significant plays that had been unsuccessful on Broadway

Also popularized intimate playhouses that did not

take the traditional proscenium-arch form

Usually seated about 200 people

20th century post war theatre

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