DRAMA
English Department
Fourth Year 2021-2022
Third and Fourth Lectures
Drama
A brief history of drama and its origins:
Drama is generally thought to have started in Greece between 600 and 200 BC, although
some critics trace it to Egyptian religious rites of coronation. It is thought that music and
dance associated with death and rejuvenation is represented in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs
from around 2500BC but little more is known about Egyptian practices.
Greek Drama:
In Greece, dramatic performances were associated with religious festivals. The Greeks
produced different types of drama, mainly tragedy and comedy. Famous Greek tragedians
include Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The best writer of comedy was Aristophanes.
Roman Drama:
The Romans inherited the drama traditions from the Greeks. The expansion of the Roman
Empire helped spread drama to many places in Europe and the Mediterranean world. Seneca
is the most important Roman tragedian.
Medieval Drama:
The Middle Ages started with the fall of the Roman Empire. Most of Classical learning was
lost in medieval times. The Middle Ages were dominated by religion and the study of
theological matters. The Christian doctrine and Christian values were the measure of
everything. During the Middle Ages, drama was looked down upon as evil and a means of
corruption. The three main types of medieval drama are mystery plays, about Bible stories,
miracle plays about the lives of saints and the miracles they performed, and morality plays,
in which the characters personify moral qualities and in which moral lessons are taught.
Renaissance Drama
During the Renaissance, the works of Greek and Roman dramatists were rediscovered and
imitated. Plays were no longer restricted to religious themes. This happened first in Italy and
spread then to other parts of Europe. In England, drama flourished during the reign of
Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603), who was a patron (sponsor) of literature and the arts.
Theatres were built in London and people attended plays in large numbers. The most
important dramatists were William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe.
Modern Drama in English Literature Characteristics
What is Modern Drama
The drama which had suffered a steep decline during the Victorian Age was revived with
great force at the beginning of the 20th century and the course of six decades has witnessed
many trends and currents in the 20th-century drama.
The drama of the Modernist Movement in England was much less innovative in technique
than it was its poetry and novel.
History of Modern Drama
English Drama during the Modernist Period (1845-1945) A.D. falls into three categories:
1. The first and the earliest phase of modernism in English Drama is marked by the plays
of G.B. Shaw and John Galsworthy, which constitute the category of social drama
modeled on the plays of Ibsen
2. The 2nd and the middle phase of Modernist English drama comprise the plays of Irish
movement contributed by some elites like Yeats. In this phase, the drama contained
the spirit of nationalism.
3. The 3rd and the final phase of the Modernist English Drama comprise plays of T.S.
Eliot and Christopher Fry. This phase saw the composition of poetic dramas inspired
by the earlier Elizabethan and Jacobean tradition.
The three categories reflect the three different phases as well as the three different facets of
Modern English Drama.
Modern Drama Characteristics
Realism
Realism is the most significant and outstanding quality of Modern English Drama. The
dramatists of the earlier years of the 20th century were interested in naturalism and it was
their endeavor (try) to deal with real problems of life in a realistic technique to their plays.
It was Henrik Ibsen, the Norwegian dramatist who popularised realism in Modern Drama.
He dealt with the problems of real life in a realistic manner of his play. His example was
followed by Robertson Arthur Jones, Galsworthy and G. B. Shaw in their plays.
The modern drama has developed the Problem Play and there are many Modern Dramatists
who have written a number of problem plays in our times. They dealt with the problems of
marriage, justice, law, administration, and strife between capital and labor in their dramas.
They used theatre as a means for bringing about reforms in the conditions of society
prevailing in their days. Henrik Ibsen‟s play A Doll’s House is a good example of a problem
play.
The problem play was a new experiment in the form and technique and dispensed with the
conventional devices and expedients of theatre.
Play of Ideas
Modern Drama is essentially a drama of ideas rather than action. The stage is used by
dramatists to give expression to certain ideas which they want to spread in society.
Modern Drama dealing with the problems of life has become far more intelligent than ever it
was in the history of drama before the present age.
With the treatment of actual life, the drama became more and more a drama of ideas,
sometimes veiled in the main action, sometimes didactically act forth.
Romanticism
The earlier dramatists of the 20th century were Realists at the core, but the passage of time
brought in, a new trend in Modern Drama. Romanticism, which had been very dear to
Elizabethan Dramatists found its way in Modern Drama and it was mainly due to Sir J.M.
Barrie‟s efforts that the new wave of Romanticism swept over Modern Drama for some years
of the 20th century. Barrie kept aloof from realities of life and made excursions into the world
of Romance.
Poetic Plays
T.S. Eliot was the main dramatist who gave importance to poetic plays and was the realistic
prose drama of the modern drama. Stephen Phillips, John Drink Water, Yeats, etc were from
those who wrote poetic plays.
History and Biographical Plays
Another trend, visible in the Modern English drama is in the direction of using history and
biography for dramatic technique. There are many beautiful historical and biographical plays
in modern dramatic literature.
Shaw‟s Caesar and Cleopatra are historical plays of great importance. John Drink Water‟s
Abraham Lincoln and Mary Stuart are also historical plays.
Irish Movement
A new trend in the Modern English Drama was introduced by the Irish dramatists who
brought about the Celtic Revival in the literature.
In the hands of the Irish dramatists like Yeats, J.M. Synge, T.C. Murrey etc. drama ceased to
be realistic in character and became an expression of the hopes and aspirations of the Irish
people from remote ways to their own times.
Comedy of Manners
There is a revival of the Comedy of Manners in modern dramatic literature. Oscar Wild,
Maugham, N. Coward, etc. have done much to revive the comedy of wit in our days.
The drama after the second has not exhibited a love for comedy and the social conditions of
the period after the war is not very favorable for the development of the artificial comedy of
the Restoration Age.
Impressionism
It is a movement that shows the effects of things and events on the mind of the artist and the
attempt of the artist to express his expressions. Impressionism constitutes another important
feature of modern drama.
In the impressionistic plays of W.B. Yeats, the main effort is in the direction of recreating
the experience of the artist and his impressions about reality rather than in presenting reality
as it is.
The impressionistic drama of the modern age seeks to suggest the impressions on the artist
rather than making an explicit statement about the objective characteristics of things or
objects.
Expressionism
It is a movement that tries to express the feelings and emotions of the people rather than
objects and events. Expressionism is another important feature of modern drama. It marks an
extreme reaction against naturalism.
The movement which had started early in Germany made its way in England drama and
several modern dramatists like J.B. Priestly, Sean O‟ Casey, C.K. Munro, Elmer Rice have
made experiments in the expressionistic tendency in modern drama.
Trends
Realism and Myth
Sigmund Freud inspired an interest in myth and dreams as playwrights became familiar with
his studies of psychoanalysis. Along with the help of Carl Jung, the two psychiatrists
influenced playwrights to incorporate myths into their plays. This integration allowed for
new opportunities for playwrights to increase the boundaries of realism within their writing.
As playwrights started to use myths in their writing, a “poetic form of realism” was created.
This form of realism deals with truths that are widespread amongst all humans, bolstered by
Carl Jung‟s idea of the collective unconscious.
Poetic Realism
Much of the poetic realism that was written during the beginning of the twentieth century
focused on the portrayals of Irish peasant life. John Millington Synge, W.B. Yeats, and Lady
Gregory were but a few writers to use poetic realism. Their portrayal of peasant life was
often unappealing and many audiences reacted cruelly. Many plays that are poetically
realistic often have unpleasant themes running through them, such as lust between a son and
his step-mother or the murder of a baby to “prove” love. These plays used myths as a
surrogate for real life in order to allow the audience to live the unpleasant plot without
completely connecting to it.
Women
The female characters progressed from the downtrodden, useless woman to an empowered,
emancipated woman. They were used to to pose subversive questions about the social order.
Many female characters portray the author‟s masculine attitudes about women and their
place in society. As time passed, though, females began gain empowerment. G.B. Shaw
became one of the first English playwrights to follow Ibsen‟s influence and create roles of
real women. Mrs. Warren, Major Barbara, and Pygmalion all have strong female leads.
Women first started voting in 1918. Later in the century, females (and males) were both
subjected to the alienation of society and routinely were not given names to suggest to the
audience the character‟s worth within the play.
Political Theatre and War
Political theatre uses the theatre to represent “how a social or political order uses its power to
„represent‟ others coercively.” It uses live performances and often shows the power of politics
through “demeaning and limiting” prejudices. Political theatre often represents many
different types of groups that are often stereotyped – “women, gay men, lesbians, ethnic and
racial groups, [and] the poor.” Political theatre is used to express one‟s political ideas.
Agitprop, a popular form of political theatre, even had its roots in the 1930s women‟s rights
movement. Propaganda played a big role in political theater, whether it be in support of a
war or in opposition of political schemes, theater played a big role in influencing the public.
The wars also affected the early theatre of the twentieth century. The consternation before
WWI produced the Dada movement, the predecessor to Surrealism and Expressionism.
Types of Modern Drama
Realism
Realism, in theater, was meant to be a direct observation of human behavior. It began as a
way to make theater more useful to society, a way to hold a mirror up to society. Because of
this thrust towards the “real” playwrights started using more contemporary settings,
backgrounds and characters. Where plays in the past had, for the most part, used
mythological or stereotypical characters, now they involved the lower class, the poor, the
rich; they involved all genders, classes and races. One of the main contributors to this style
was Henrik Ibsen.
Social Realism
Social Realism began showing up in plays during the 1930s. This realism had a political
conscience behind it because the world was in a depression. These plays painted a harsh
picture of rural poverty. The drama began to aim at showing governments the penalties of
unrestrained capitalism and the depressions that lax economies created. One of the main
contributors to this style was G.B. Shaw.
Absurdist Drama
Absurdist Drama was existentialist theatre which put a direct perception of a mode of being
above all abstract considerations. It was also essentially a poetic, lyrical theatre for the
expression of intuitions of being through movement, situations and concrete imagery.
Language was generally downplayed. (Barnet) Symbolism, Dadaism and their offspring,
Surrealism, Theatre of Cruelty, and Expressionism all fall into this category.
Dadaism
Dadaism, or Dada, was a reaction against WWI. Like many of the movements, Dada
included writing, painting and poetry as well as theatre. Many Dadaists wrote manifestos
detailing their beliefs, which normally outlined their disgust in colonialism and nationalism
and tried to be the opposite of the the current aesthetics and values. The more Dada offended,
the better. It was considered to be (by Dadaists), the „anti-art‟. It rejected the values of society
and turned everything on its head, preferring to disgust and offend.
Symbolism/Aestheticism
In England, Symbolism was also known as Aestheticism. A very stylized format of drama,
wherein dreams and fantasies were common plot devices, Aestheticism was used by
numerous playwrights from Yeats to Pinter. The staging was highly stylized, usually using
minimal set pieces and vague blocking. While the playwrights who could be considered
Aestheticists lived and worked at the beginning of the century, it influenced all of the
following styles.
Surrealism
Like Aestheticism, Surrealism has its base in the mystical. It developed the physicality of
theatre and downplayed words, hoping to influence its audiences through action. Other
common characteristics of surreal plays are unexpected comparisons and surprise. The most
famous British playwright in the 20s surrealist style is Samuel Beckett. Theatre of Cruelty is
a subset of surrealism and was motivated by an idea of Antonin Artaud. It argues the idea
that theatre is a “representational medium” and tried to bring current ideas and experiences to
the audience through participation and “ritualistic theater experiments.” Artaud thought that
theatre should present and represent equally. This type of theatre relies deeply on metaphors
and rarely included a description of how it could be performed.
Epic Theatre
Epic theater was created by Bertold Brecht who rejected realistic theatre. He found that such
plays were too picture-perfect. Epic Theatre is based on Greek Epic poetry. There are
dramatic illusions such as “stark, harsh lighting, blank stages, placards announcing changes
of scenes, bands playing music onstage, and long, discomfiting pauses” (Jacobus). Brecht
believed that drama should be made within its audiences and he thought that Epic Theatre
drama would reinforce the realities that people were facing rather than challenge them. Epic
Theatre helped to preserve the social issues that they portrayed.