20TH CENTURY SOCIO-POLITICAL DRAMA Black general Red British Blue American Green - gender two world wars,

orld wars, national reappraisal -loss of Britains imperial role, technological advances increasing urbanization, Fabian socialism Marxism feminism,

the abolition of censorship founding of a National Theatre, function of drama, nature of its reception relationship between form and content intellectual dynamism and

artistic significance. In the 20th century the stage regained its function as a forum for public debate(Innes) Socio-Political Realism objective reproduction contemporary life. playwrights who describe Social/Socialist Realism addressing questions of justice calling for revolutionary change. presenting ethical challenges to the audience raising ideological consciousness, working to correct abuses within the system inciting violent action against it. LANDMARKS OF MODERN BRITISH DRAMA Since 1956, politics in English drama has been commonplace of their ordinary work as

deal directly with political issues,

rootedness of the dramatic action in the context of the society the characters live in. R.G. Davis 1983 Theatre Communications article, Political plays are whole plays discussing peoples problems within the fabric of society where social relations are part of everyones psyche. Michelene Wandor Carry on, Understudies: Theatre and Sexual Politics Routledge & Kegan Paul feminist theatre converts what men see as private or domestic subject matter into political drama. American plays, politics in pockets of activity, not as a nationwide phenomenon, James Leverett, Theatre Communications Group, In England, left-wing playwrights greater chance of being produced

somewhere and given a hearing than in the United States. Marxist perspective : Every play is political, if only by its tacit support of the status quo when it ignores politics.

politics are themselves defined by assumptions about gender relationships family function of sexuality mother father Mother-child relationships pregnancy.

questions about the nature of gender roles themselves authority, nurturing, emotional dependence, explicit, implicit. the imperative of gender shapes story (plot), and the way it is structured; shapes the gender dynamic in the play itself, fundamental to the imaginative world of the play how possible it is to imagine being, feeling, what it is to function, as a member of the opposite sex gender roles are as much about power relations as are those of class, race and social position To be or nor to be (gendered) Hamlet dependent for its creation as much on the imperative of gender as on other kinds of social and historical determinant.

Bursts of increased theatrical activity from women have tended to coincide with periods when political and social changes, alongside radical political movements, created a climate in which women could, and demanded to, participate