Theatre in the Modern World
Produced by:
VEA Pty Ltd
© Classroom Video Ltd 2011
Commissioning Editor:
Dee Powell
Reproducing these support notes
You may download and print one copy of these
support notes from our website for your reference.
Further downloads, copying or printing MUST be
reported to The Copyright Licensing Agency
(CLA) as per the Copyright, Design and Patents
Act, 1988.
Directed by:
Thomasina Gibson
Executive Producer:
Simon Garner B.Ed, Dip
Management
Theatre in the Modern World
For Teachers
Introduction
This film provides viewers with an insight into the theatre of the twentieth century and how it
developed as a direct result of the horrors of war, witnessed firsthand by the playwrights. It explores
the work of Beckett and Pinter, and examines the main themes of their work whilst analyzing the
theatre of the Absurd.
Timeline
0.00
1.48
7.03
9.30
11.17
16.09
1.45
7.00
9.27
11.14
16.06
20.00
Introduction
Post War Theatre
Kitchen Sink Drama
The Method
Absurdism
A Pause for Pinter
Related Titles
Frantic Assembly – A Guide to Devising
From Page to Stage
The History of Theatre
Theatre Practitioners: Berkoff
Recommended Resources
Theatre of the Absurd – Martin Esslin (Penguin)
Beckett Remembering – Edited by James and Elizabeth Knowlson (Bloomsbury 2006)
Damned to Fame – James R Knowlson (Bloomsbury 1997)
Harold Pinter: Faber Critical Guide – Bill Naismith (Faber and Faber 2000)
Looking Back: Never Explain, Never Apologise: "Better Class of Person: An Autobiography, 1929-56",
"Almost a Gentleman: An Autobiography, 1955-66" – John Osborne (Faber and Faber 2004)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Pinter
http://kirjasto.sci.fi/hpinter.htm
http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc28.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Caretaker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Beckett
http://www.themodernword.com/beckett/beckett_works.html
http://www.theaterpro.com/beckett.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Ionesco
http://www.ionesco.org/vie-en.html
http://www.theatrehistory.com/misc/rhinoceros.html
http://www.moviemail-online.co.uk/scripts/collection.pl?collID=511
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_sink_realism
http://www.jahsonic.com/KitchenSink.html
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Kitchen_sink_realism
http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/Slavonic/Absurd.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_the_Absurd
http://www.theatredatabase.com/20th_century/theatre_of_the_absurd.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_sink_realism
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/445176/
2
© Classroom Video Ltd www.ClassroomVideo.co.uk
Reproducing or downloading this resource pack:
You may download and print one copy of these support notes from our website for your reference. Further downloads, copying
or printing MUST be reported to The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) as per the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.
Theatre in the Modern World
Student Worksheet
Initiate Prior Learning
1. With your class brainstorm the plays they know and have seen. Begin to categorize them into eras,
and genres.
2. Get your students to define what the term “absurd” means. Have they seen any theatre that would
fit their definition? Are there characters or sections of a play that fit their definition?
3. Research the causes and effects of the world wars, particularly focusing upon the conditions of
war for the soldiers and the effects on the men and women left at home.
3
© Classroom Video Ltd www.ClassroomVideo.co.uk
Reproducing or downloading this resource pack:
You may download and print one copy of these support notes from our website for your reference. Further downloads, copying
or printing MUST be reported to The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) as per the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.
Theatre in the Modern World
Active Viewing Guide
1. How has theatre changed in the last 100 years?
From _____________________________________ of Victorian Britain to abstract exploration of
_________________________________________________________________________________
2. How are the plays of John Osborne defined?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
3. Summarize Beckett’s work
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
4. How were many of the twentieth playwrights influenced by the war?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
5. Why were playwrights and practitioners like Jacques Lecoq keen to develop a sense of culture?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
6. Why was the existentialist movement increasing popular at this time and how was this shown
through the plots of the plays?
_________________________________________________________________________________
7. Why was “Waiting for Godot” considered to be provocative?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
4
© Classroom Video Ltd www.ClassroomVideo.co.uk
Reproducing or downloading this resource pack:
You may download and print one copy of these support notes from our website for your reference. Further downloads, copying
or printing MUST be reported to The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) as per the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.
Theatre in the Modern World
8. What themes did the playwrights of the time explore, rather than realism?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
9. What sort of theatre was popular during the first half of the twentieth century?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
10. How was kitchen sink drama different?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
11. The key themes of Kitchen sink Drama included:
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
12. Why were actors leaning to the work of Stanisalvski to meet the demands of the new plays?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
13. What are the main themes of Camus essay “The Myth of Sisythus”?
_________________________________________________________________________________
14. What were the key questions playwrights were exploring in their work?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
15. How did it affect their writing?
_________________________________________________________________________________
5
© Classroom Video Ltd www.ClassroomVideo.co.uk
Reproducing or downloading this resource pack:
You may download and print one copy of these support notes from our website for your reference. Further downloads, copying
or printing MUST be reported to The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) as per the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.
Theatre in the Modern World
16. How is absurd drama defined by Ionesco?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
17. Whilst Beckett may not fully fit the term “absurdist”, how are his works and philosophy similar?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
18. What, according to John Reid, do modern productions of “Waiting for Godot” lose?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
19. How do the plays of Ionesco fit the “Absurd” genre?
_________________________________________________________________________________
20. What, according to Bijan Sheibani, makes Pinter unique?
_________________________________________________________________________________
21. How do Pinter’s Plays fit the Absurd genre?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
22. What is the typical structure of Pinter’s plays?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
23.
Why does Pinter use pause?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
6
© Classroom Video Ltd www.ClassroomVideo.co.uk
Reproducing or downloading this resource pack:
You may download and print one copy of these support notes from our website for your reference. Further downloads, copying
or printing MUST be reported to The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) as per the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.
Theatre in the Modern World
Extension Activities
1. What do the poets and writers who have written about war and the conditions of war tell us?
Explore not only the work of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon but also look at some writing
about modern war (e.g. Sebastian Faulks’ “Birdsong” or “Knackered” by Colin Mitchell).
2. Use your research to create a short scene, drama or to explore characterization through thoughttunneling or hot-seating the characters within the narrative.
3. Use improvisation to explore some of the themes and ideas from your research. Create an
improvisation between 2 people which would fit the absurd genre
4. Listen to a conversation on the bus, train, café or on your way home. Use 4 lines from the dialogue
to create the opening of a drama in the style of the absurd.
5. Discuss how kitchen sink drama and absurdism influenced the current trends in theatre, television
and film?
6. Debate the following statement: “Theatre must entertain. We get enough drama at home and in the
news papers”.
7. Research the key principles of Stanislavski’s method
8. Apply some of Stanislavski’s key principles – “given circumstances”, “emotional memory” and the
“magic if” for example – to short improvisations of a piece of text. How do these techniques
support performance?
7
© Classroom Video Ltd www.ClassroomVideo.co.uk
Reproducing or downloading this resource pack:
You may download and print one copy of these support notes from our website for your reference. Further downloads, copying
or printing MUST be reported to The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) as per the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.
Theatre in the Modern World
ANSWERS - Active Viewing Guide
1. How has theatre changed in the last 100 years?
From the country house farces of Victorian Britain to abstract exploration of the exploration of
the human condition
2. How are the plays of John Osborne defined?
Kitchen sink drama which created hard hitting social drama
3. Summarize Beckett’s work
Absurd characters and illogical situations.
4. How were many of the twentieth playwrights influenced by the war?
Many were involved in the wars and their first hand experience with all the suffering and
slaughter was very immediate. After the war the sense of exhaustion and disillusionment
about religion, science, rationalism and progress left people very bitter.
5. Why were playwrights and practitioners like Jacques Lecoq keen to develop a sense of culture?
They were keen to create and foster cultural conditions to ensure that such a war could not
happen again. A Utopian aspiration.
6. Why was the existentialist movement increasing popular at this time and how was this shown
through the plots of the plays?
Questions about religion, life and mortality came to the forefront of Art. When millions of
people died needlessly, people began once again to question why? It places the emphasis on
the individual to find a meaning in life. In “Waiting for Godot” for example, the characters are
lost, finding it difficult to find their worth in a society which does not value life.
7. Why was “Waiting for Godot” considered to be provocative?
It rejected the conventions of realism including character and plot. It was also meta-theatrical.
Most importantly it rejected the accepted theological argument that we must understand
suffering in order to become closer to God.
8. What themes did the playwrights of the time explore, rather than realism?
They sought to explore the major themes of human existence through the mythical and
magical.
9. What sort of theatre was popular during the first half of the twentieth century?
Reworks of classics from past centuries and new writing about upper class life. It portrayed
farcical mishaps in upper class houses.
10. How was kitchen sink drama different?
Playwrights sought to tell tales about the lives of ordinary people’ giving audiences something
they could relate to. They were often set in working class houses with people performing
working class tasks.
11. The key themes of Kitchen sink Drama included:
Frustrations of life comparing relationships between lower and middle class. Issues including
teenage pregnancies, sexual orientations, race and the breakdown of the nuclear family
12. Why were actors leaning to the work of Stanisalvski to meet the demands of the new plays?
Plays required a realistic and emotional draining performance. Performances became more
naturalistic.
13. What are the main themes of Camus essay ”The Myth of Sisythus”?
Exploring the sense of disillusionment following the war. Examining the meaningless, a loss of
faith in humanity. The barbarism of the human race. The lack of progress.
8
© Classroom Video Ltd www.ClassroomVideo.co.uk
Reproducing or downloading this resource pack:
You may download and print one copy of these support notes from our website for your reference. Further downloads, copying
or printing MUST be reported to The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) as per the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.
Theatre in the Modern World
14. What were the key questions playwrights were exploring in their work?
An exploration of existence, humanity and art. (“Why am I here?”, “What is the meaning of
life?”, “Is there a God?”, “What should I believe?”, “Where should I go?”, “What is art?”)
15. How did it affect their writing?
They explored new subject matter but also experimented with speech patterns and physicality.
There was a real desire to ensure theatre was a visual and aural experience.
16. How is absurd drama defined by Ionesco?
That which is devoid of purpose. Cut off from his religious, metaphysical and transcendental
roots, man is lost.
17. Whilst Beckett may not fully fit the term “absurdist”, how are his works and philosophy similar?
He is quite unique but he shares a sense of lost of meaning; exploring it to greater extremes.
As science expanded, our sense of ignorance expanded. A sense of not knowing why.
18. What, according to John Reid, do modern productions of “Waiting for Godot” lose?
It is now a vehicle for star actors which give it a sentimental sense. The allusions to the Bible,
for example, are lost. We are no longer offered his skeptical vision of society and the meaning
of life. Nowadays, it is comforting.
19. How do the plays of Ionesco fit the “Absurd” genre?
They avoid plot or character development, making full use of comedy to show the absurdity of
situations. We see human existence as absurd.
20. What, according to Bijan Sheibani, makes Pinter unique?
He accesses his unconscious, often writing about things he doesn’t understand himself. His
plays contain elements of autobiography and can often be quite painful.
21. How do Pinter’s Plays fit the Absurd genre?
They include a lack of action, daily routines of nothingness, meaningless of the characters
existence but there is a sense of the real through the setting.
22. What is the typical structure of Pinter’s plays?
They start with a light comical tone but slowly change into anxiety, conflict and fear. Often
there is a threat of an unknown, powerful, often omniscient danger prevails. This dark
presence controls everything, including the characters’ lives. Often things are left
unexplained.
23. Why does Pinter use pause?
At a point where something has happened or been said and people cannot carry on speaking.
Often linked to memory and personal experience.
9
© Classroom Video Ltd www.ClassroomVideo.co.uk
Reproducing or downloading this resource pack:
You may download and print one copy of these support notes from our website for your reference. Further downloads, copying
or printing MUST be reported to The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) as per the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.