From Romanticism to
Realism
The Essential Theatre. Ch6.
Introduction

The late XVIII and early XIX centuries brought a reaction
against the neoclassical rules that had dominated dramatic
writing since the mid-seventieth century.

Most of the strictures of neoclassicism were applied only to
‘regular’ drama (comedy and tragedy written in five acts).

Perhaps for this reason a number of ‘irregular ‘ forms gained
[popularity during the XVIII century
（The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David, 1787）
The Emergence of Romanticism

Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the attitudes that had supported
neoclassicism began to change.

Several playwrights in Germany (Storm and Stress) school began to write serious
plays

experimented both with bold subjects and dramatic form.
Title page of Volume III of Des Knaben Wunderhorn, 1808
The Emergence of Romanticism

Perhaps the changes in critical attitudes are best summed up in
relation to Shakespeare.

Although Shakespeare had always been popular in England,
where many of his plays held a firm place in the repertory,

they were not performed in any other European country until the
late eighteenth century.
Oath of the Horatii by
Jacques-Louis
David(1784)
Synopsis of Victor
Hugo’s Hernani

the authors have composed a comprehensive work

explaining recent insights into the genesis and analysis of
complexity.

They emphasize interdependence of advances in computing,

as well as in conceptualizing complexity,

then describe a new generation of approaches for developing
artificial intelligence and for viewing life itself.
The Emergence of Romanticism

The theatre underwent major alterations during the early
nineteenth century.

In this new climate, melodrama flourished,

becoming to the general public

what Shakespeare was to elitist audiences.
Neil Bartlett's adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist
onstage at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
The Emergence of Romanticism

Romanticism was the dominant artistic
movement

during the first half of the nineteenth century.
The Prince of Homburg
Video link of
The Prince
of Homburg
Melodrama

Melodrama was the popular-culture manifestation of Romanticism

and as such was the most popular dramatic form of the nineteenth century.
Melodrama had a large musical element, as suggested by its name,
which literally means ‘music drama’.
Melodrama

The popularity of melodrama in the nineteenth century is
explained in part by fundamental changes

in social and economic conditions

stemming from the industrial revolution.
Melodrama

London had supported only two or three theatres during the
eighteenth century

but between 1800 and 1850, its population doubled and the
number of its theatres grew to more than twenty.
Melodrama

Because the pattern of melodrama is always the same (good
threatened by evil, with the eventual triumph of good), variety
was gained through such novelties as :

exotic locales,

ever-more-spectacular effects,

increased realism,

incorporation into the action of the latest inventions,

dramatizations of popular novels or notorious crimes.
Trauma as Melodrama: Thorold Dickinson’s Gaslight
(1940)
Melodrama

After electricity became common in the 1880s , electric motors
were coupled with treadmills to stage horse or chariot races.

In melodrama, realistic spectacle, thrilling effects, novelty,
suspense, and the vindication of virtue were the major appeals.
Monte Cristo

Monte Cristo is a dramatization of Alexandre Dumas pere’s The Count of
Monte Cristo (1845), one of the world’s most popular novels.

At first it was in twenty acts (two evenings to perform).

In 1885, James O’Neill purchased the rights of this version and made
numerous revisions.
Synopsis of Monte Cristo

The story of Edmund Dantes, self-styled Count of Monte
Cristo, is told with consummate skill.

The victim of a miscarriage of justice, Dantes is fired by
a desire for retribution and empowered by a stroke of
providence.

In his campaign of vengeance, he becomes an
anonymous agent of fate.

The sensational narrative of intrigue, betrayal, escape,
and triumphant revenge moves at a cracking pace.

Dumas' novel presents a powerful conflict between good
and evil embodied in an epic saga of rich diversity

that is complicated by the hero's ultimate discomfort
with the hubristic implication of his own actions.
Monte Cristo

Reducing Dumas’s novel of several hundred pages to a play

that could be performed in two or three hours was a formidable
task,

but not unusual in the nineteenth century,

because popular novels were typically dramatized quickly
following their publication.
Monte Cristo

The sweep of Monte Cristo is neater to that of Shakespeare’s
plays than to that of plays by Sophocles or Moliere.

Like other melodramas, Monte Cristo shows goodness
victimized and evil triumphant for a time,

but ultimately evil is exposed and punished and goodness is
vindicated.
Video link of
The Count of
Monte Cristo
Monte Cristo

The turning point, Edmund’s escape, has a miraculous quality

both in the event itself

and in Faria’s legacy of enormous wealth,

which makes Edmund’s revenge possible.
Monte Cristo

Characterization is far simpler than plot in Monte Cristo.

The characters can be divided into three categories:

good (Edmund, Mercedes, Noirtier, Albert),

evil (Danglars, Fernand, Villefort),

functional (sailors, fishermen, policemen, servants).
Monte Cristo

The characters are always wholly conscious of their motives
and feelings and state them to the audience.

Next to suspenseful and morally satisfying plots,

melodrama owed its appeal most to spectacle.
Monte Cristo

Monte Cristo requires eight sets,

two of which were probably simple and very shallow,

permitting more complex sets to be erected behind them

while a scene was in progress.
Monte Cristo



The demands of the Chateau d’If scene illustrate the changes
that had occurred in scenic practices
by the late nineteenth century.
Monte Cristo

By the late nineteenth century,

the stage floor in most theatres was divided into sections a few
feet wide,

any of which could be removed to create an opening extending
completely across the stage.
Monte Cristo

Touring such complex productions was made possible by the
development of dependable transportation,

which became a reality with the spread of railroads.
Monte Cristo

Melodrama’s visual appeal was further enhanced by lighting,

the potential of which had increased greatly after gas replaced
candles and oil

during the first half of the nineteenth century.
Monte Cristo

O’Neills production of Monte Cristo calls attention to another
change then underway:

Long runs of single plays performed by actors hired for that
production

only were replacing a repertory of plays

performed in rotation by a permanent company.
Monte Cristo

With melodrama, the theatre in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries achieved its greatest mass appeal.

The popular entertainment of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries,

especially melodrama,

was the meeting ground for theatre and film

and was crucial in the subsequent history of both.
The Advent of Realism

Even as James O’Neill was achieving his great popular success
in Monte Cristo,

other theories and beliefs were undermining the absolutist
moral values on which melodrama depended.
James O'Neill as Abbé Busoni in Monte Cristo
The Advent of Realism

In the nineteenth century, a number of intellectual and
scientific developments called many biblical passages into
question.

The greatest controversy was provoked by Charles Darwin’s
The Origin of Species (1859).
The Advent of Realism
•
Darwin’s theories have many implications.

First, suggest that heredity and environment are the
primary causes of everything human beings are or do.

Second – people cannot be held fully responsible for
what they do (because of no control over individual
heredity and little control over the environment ).

Third, strengthen the idea of progress.
The Advent of Realism

These implications were crucial in the development of the
modern temperament,

because they suggested that change is the norm.
The Advent of Realism

The new ideas about human conscience were stated most fully
in the writings of Sigmund Freud.

Freud argued that the basic human instincts are aggression and
sexuality – self-preservation and procreation.
Dr. Sigmund Freud ( 1856 to 1939 )
The Advent of Realism

According to his view, then, not only are moral values relative,

but also language and behavior are only partially reliable
indicators of a person’s state of mind and motives.
The Advent of Realism

Relativity eventually affected every area of thought and action.

It eventually entered the theatre through realism and naturalism,
even though these movements were seeking objective, scientific
explanations of human behavior.
Synopsis of Alexandre Dumans
fils’ The Demi-Monde

The Baroness Suzanne D'Ange belongs to that
questionable stratum of Parisian society full of married
women whose husbands are never seen.

She has had "affairs" with the Marquis de Thonnerins and
more recently with Olivier de Jalin.

Now, however, she has met the attractive young officer,
Raymond de Nanjac, just back from ten years in the
African service,

and unacquainted with the new social development that
enables women like Suzanne to live on the fringe of
society.

In his openly expressed admiration she sees an
opportunity for marriage and social rehabilitation if she
can persuade the Marquis and Olivier to keep silent.
Realism and Naturalism

Realism was first recognized during the 1850s,
naturalism (a more extreme version of realism) during
the 1870s.

The views of realists and naturalists were grounded in
the scientific outlook:

the need to understand human behavior in terms of
natural cause and effect.
Contadine by Jean-François Millet
Realism and Naturalism

The real issue for realists and naturalists was the role of art in
society:

Should art, as in melodrama, always show good triumphant?

Should art reaffirm traditional values even though they have not
triumphed in this instance?
Or should art, as the realists and naturalists argued, follow truth
wherever it leads?
“Pastoral Landscape” Asher Brown Durand (1861,
painted on the eve of the Civil War).
Realism and Naturalism

These issues were brought into focus about 1880 by Henrik
Ibsen (1828-1906), a Norwegian playwright often called the
founder of modern drama.

His plays stirred worldwide controversy because the endings
did not reaffirm accepted values.
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)
A Doll’s House

In A Doll’s House (1879), Nora Helmer is faced with the
consequences of having forged her father’s name to borrow the
money needed to restore her husband’s (Torvald) health
(although by law she couldn’t do it without her husband’s
consent).
Video of
A Doll’s House
A Doll’s House

After her husband recovers, the man from whom Nora
borrowed the money (Krogstad) threatens to expose her as a
criminal if she does not help him keep the job he is about to
lose at Torvald’s bank.
A Doll’s House

Nora wishes to consider, free from the emotional blackmail of
home and children, what it means to be a woman in a society
that deprives her of all rights.

The outrage also stemmed from Ibsen’s refusal to allow the
audience the escape that Torvald had sought – the pretense,
following a moment’s anxiety, that the old social order was
secure.
Henrik Ibsen: A Doll's House, Moscow Art Theatre 1890
A Doll’s House

Mrs. Linde and Krogstad serve as contrasts to Nora and
Torvald.

Nora, as she herself eventually realizes, has spent her life being
treated like a doll, protected from harsh realities but having
learned to manipulate men by feeding their fantasies about
female helplessness.
A Doll’s House

Another major character, Dr. Rank, also serves as a contrast to
Torvald.

Nora can talk freely and share confidences with Rank about
things that Torvald would find shocking.
Nora and Dr. Rank. A Doll's House
By Henrik Ibsen
Adapted by Frank McGuinness
Directed by Dan Yurgaitis
Scene and Lighting Design by Larry Wild
A Doll’s House

A Doll’s House can serve as a model of cause-to-effect
dramatic construction.

A Doll’s House uses a single setting throughout.

Characters seem to live in the settings.

Action, character, and environment are intertwined.
Zola and Naturalism

Naturalism, unlike realism, had little success in the theatre,
probably because it was too extreme in its demands.

It’s chief advocate was Emile Zola (1840-1902).

One of his followers suggested to take naturalistic plays as
slice of life – a segment of reality transferred to the stage.
Emile Zola (1840-1902).
Zola and Naturalism

Zola, who often compared naturalistic art with medicine,
believed that, just as the medical pathologist seeks to discover
the cause of a disease so it can be treated,

the dramatist should expose social ills so their causes can be
corrected.
Emile Zola (1840-1902).
Zola and Naturalism

Together, realism and naturalism struck major blows against
rigid social codes and absolute values.

They laid the foundations on which modernists built.
Synopsis of Zola’s The Earth

Zola's classic story of an old man who, forced
to divide his property among his children, is
cruelly harassed by them for what little else
remains.

The theme, as simple yet as complex as the
earth itself, hums with the intrigue of subplots
carefully dovetailed into the narrative and
constantly arrests the reader with fascinating
insights into the motivations of the characters.
The Emergence of the Director

The present-day director who assumes responsibility for interpreting all of
the elements that make up a production,

is primarily a product of the late nineteenth century.
The Emergence of the Director

A convergence of the modern director,

One of these developments involved the growing need for
someone to coordinate and unify all the elements of production.
The Emergence of the Director

The acceptance of the modern director owes most to two
influences:

the theory of Wagner and the practice of Saxe-Meiningen.

Wagner erected a new kind of theatre building, opened at
Bayreuth in 1876.

Georg II, duke of Saxe-Meiningen(1826-1914) is now usually
considered the first director in the modern sense.

He exerted complete control over every aspect of production.
Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen SaxeMeiningen(1826-1914)
The Emergence of the Director

The Meiningen Company validated many of Wagner’s views,

and the need for unified production soon became a fundamental tenet of
theatrical production.
Synopsis of
Wagner’s Die Walkure

Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), WWV 86B, is an opera in three
acts by Richard Wagner with a German libretto by the
composer.

It is the second of the four operas that form Wagner's cycle
Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung).

The story of the opera is based on the Norse mythology told
in the Volsunga Saga and the Poetic Edda.

In Norse mythology, a valkyrie is one in a group of female
figures who decide which soldiers die in battle and which
live.

Die Walküre's best-known excerpt is the "Ride of the
Valkyries".
Video of
Die Walkure
Julius Caesar

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a tragedy by William
Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599.

It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against the Roman
dictator Julius Caesar, his assassination and the defeat of
the conspirators at the Battle of Philippi.

It is one of several plays written by Shakespeare based
on true events from Roman history, which also include
Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra.

Although the title is Julius Caesar, Julius Caesar is not
the most visible character in its action; he appears in
only five scenes.

Marcus Brutus speaks more than four times as many
lines and the central psychological drama is his struggle
between the conflicting demands of honour, patriotism
and friendship.
Video link of
Julius Caesar
The Independent Theatre
Movement

By the 1880s, innovative plays by realists and naturalists had
appeared,

but censorship had kept most of them from production.

The new drama and the new staging had been remained isolated from
each other.

They were finally to meet in “independent” theatres.
Original Booth Theatre building, circa 1880s
The Independent Theatre Movement

The first independent theatre was the Theatre Libre, founded in Paris in
1887 by Andre Antoine.

In 1889, the Freie Buhne was founded in Berlin.
The Independent Theatre Movement

London’s independent theatre’s inaugural production of Ibsen’s
Ghosts,

created enormous scandal that did much to call public attention
to a new type of drama.
The Independent Theatre Movement

Another organization that emerged from the independent
theatre movement-

the Moscow Art Theatre- was to be of special importance.
The Independent Theatre Movement

The Moscow Art Theatre

Founded in 1898 by Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir
Danchenko,

it achieved its first major success with the plays of Anton
Chekhov (1860-1904).
The Independent Theatre Movement

The Moscow Art Theatre eventually made its greatest impact
through Stanislavsky’s system of acting,

became the most pervasive influence on acting during the
twentieth century.
Synopsis of The Three Sisters

This landmark probes the lives and dreams of
Olga, Masha and Irina,

former Muscovites now living in a provincial
town from which they long to escape.

Their hopes for a life more suited to their
cultivated tastes and sensibilities provide a
touching counterpoint to the relentless flow of
compromising events in the real world.
Video link of
The Three
Sisters
Synopsis of George Bernard
Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession

"Mrs. Warren's Profession" is George Bernard Shaw's classic
play that centers on the relationship between Mrs. Warren, a
prostitute, and her prudish Cambridge-educated daughter Vivie,
who is horrified to discover that her mother's wealth was
acquired through the operation of whore-houses.

Shaw offers up this play "to draw attention to the truth that
prostitution is caused, not by female depravity and male
licentiousness,

but simply by underpaying, undervaluing, and overworking
women so shamefully that the poorest of them are forced to
resort to prostitution to keep body and soul together."
Conclusion

By the late nineteenth century, realism in the theatre was well established.

Melodrama was grounded in the assumption that human beings innately
know the difference between right and wrong,

that moral behavior has little to do with environment, class, or wealth.
Conclusion

Realism and naturalism tended to view the world scientifically
rather than morally

and were based on the idea that forces of heredity and
environment determines human behavior.

A pathway was thereby opened for those ideas and practices
that have come to be labeled “modernist.”