As playwrights started to use myths in their writing, a “poetic form of realism” was created. This integration allowed for new opportunities for playwrights to increase the boundaries of realism within their writing. Along with the help of Carl Jung, the two psychiatrists influenced playwrights to incorporate myths into their plays. Sigmund Freud inspired an interest in myth and dreams as playwrights became familiar with his studies of psychoanalysis. The last act of the century was a turn back towards realism as well as the founding of Europe’s first children’s cultural center.įor a year-by-year breakdown between 18, please click here. Playwrights towards the end of the century count among their numbers: Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Brian Friel, Caryl Churchill, and Tom Stoppard. (Chothia) Towards the end of the century, the term ‘theatre of exorcism’ came into use due to the amount of plays conjuring the past in order to confront and accept it. Many played with the idea of reality, some were radically political, others shunned naturalism and questioned the legitimacy of previously unassailable beliefs. “Commercial theatre thrived and at Drury Lane large budget musicals by Ivor Novello and Noel Coward used huge sets, extravagant costumes and large casts to create spectacular productions.” (West End) After the wars, taboos were broken and new writers, directors, and actors emerged with different views. In the West End, the middle class attended popular, conservative theatre dominated by Noël Coward and G.B. Between the wars, two types of theatre reined. Not only did Industrialization result in alienation so did the wars. They explored common societal business practices (conditions of factories), new political ideologies (socialism), or the rise of a repressed sector of the population (women).(Chothia) Industrialization also had an impact on Twentieth century drama, resulting in plays lamenting the alienation of humans in an increasingly mechanical world. Common themes in the new early 20th century drama were political, reflecting the unease or rebellion of the workers against the state, philosophical, delving into the who and why of human life and existence, and revolutionary, exploring the themes of colonization and loss of territory. The new direction was political, satirical, and rebellious. “In Britain the impact of these continental innovations was delayed by a conservative theatre establishment until the late 1950s and 1960s when they converged with the counter-cultural revolution to transform the nature of English language theatre.” The West End, England’s Broadway, tended to produce the (Greenblatt 1844) musical comedies and well-made plays, while smaller theatres and Irish venues took a new direction. The early twentieth century denoted the split between ‘frocks and frills’ drama and serious works, following in the footsteps of many other European countries. Somerset Maugham, and John Galsworthy, characters emulated this new crowd, satirized the well- made play characters, and created new stereotypes and new standards. In the plays by George Bernard Shaw, Harley Granville Barker, W. In England the well-made play genre was being rejected and replaced with actors and directors who were committed to bringing both reform and a serious audience to the theatre by appealing to the younger, socially conscious and politically alert crowd. Yeats, Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn, to name a few. (Greenblatt 1843) Their purpose was to provide a specifically Celtic and Irish venue that produced works that “stage the deeper emotions of Ireland.” (The Abbey’s) The playwrights of the Irish Literary Theater (which later became the Abbey Theater, as it is known today) were part of the literary revival and included: Sean O’Casey, J.M. Twentieth Century British theatre is commonly believed to have started in Dublin, Ireland with the foundation of the Irish Literary Theater by William B. “ Over time the desire to unsettle, to shock, even to alienate the audience became one hallmark of modern drama.” (Greenblatt 5)
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