Modern Drama

After the death of Shakespeare, drama declined for two centuries.

2) Revived in the last decade of 19th century.
3) Two important factors for the revival in 1980s.

a) Influence of Ibsen: Great Norwegian dramatist, give rise to the Comedy of Ideas.
Dramas ceased to deal with themes remote in time and place, real drama must deal with
emotions. Gave up melodramatic romanticism and pseudo-classical remoteness, start
treating the actual life, made drama a drama of ideas.

Important dramatist: George Bernard Shaw.

Drama of Ideas:
* Revolutionary against past literary models, social conventions and morality.
* Dealt with the problem of sex, youth.
* Against romance, capitalism, parental authority.
* Number of theories, slow actions and frequently interrupted.
* Study of soul.
* Inner conflict substituted the outer conflict.

Characters: Questioning, restless, dissatisfied, struggling against prejudice.

b) Cynical atmosphere: Treat the moral assumptions with frivolity, make polite fun,
revived the Comedy of Manners in 20th century.

Important dramatist: Oscar Wilde.

Other dramatist: Granville Barker, Galsworthy, James Birdie, Priestley, Sir James Barrie
and John Masefield. William Somerset Maugham and Noel Coward directly followed Wilde.

Comedy of Manners:
* Witty, satirical, purely fanciful and dependent.
* Cynical and bitter when dealing with social problems.

Failure in last 50 years: Confusions, scepticism, change in social manners, change in

modes of speech and attitudes to life.

4) Irish Dramatic Movement: Another type of drama developed under its influence.
Originator: Lady Gregory, W.B.Yeats.
Important dramatist: J.M.Synge, Sean OCasey.

5) Poetic Drama: Revived in 20th century.

Practitioner: T.S.Eliot
Other dramatist: Christopher Fry, Stephen Philips, Stephen Spender.

MODERN DRAMATISTS

1) George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950): Irishman, practitioner and father of new Comedy
of Ideas, great thinker, genius, representative of Puritan side of Anglo Irish tradition, social
entertainer, socialist.
Purpose: Propaganda.
Characters: Types studied thoroughly, puppets, himself as a chief character in disguises.
Style: Jest and verbal wit, artistic form, no clumsiness.
Characteristics: certain modern life problem, prefaces, civilized man either develop or
perish, no revolt.
Themes:
Political: Man and Superman (1902), John Bulls other Island (1904) and Major Barbara
(1905). These plays dealt with issues as poverty and womens rights and implied that
socialism could help solve the problems created by capitalism.
Social: The Crime of imprisonment (1922), Intelligent Womens Guide to Socialism (1928),
and Everybodys Political Whats What (1944).
Other:
Mrs. Warrens Profession (1902): Problems of modern society, evils of prostitution.
Widowers House (1892): Blame on society.
Getting Married (1908): Unnaturalness of home-life.
The Doctors Dilemma (1906): Superstition.
Caesar and Cleopatra (1901): No particular theme.
The Apple Cart (1929): Ridicule on democratic form and work.
Back to Methuselah (1921): Nature of the Life Force and its effect on destiny of Man.
St. Joan (1923): Universal theme involving grand emotions.

Fabian Society: Joined in May 1884, a fact-finding and fact-dispensing body, pamphlet on
social issues, property was theft, in favour of equality of income, equitable division of land
and capital.
The Fabian Manifesto (1884)
The True Radical Programme (1887)
Fabian Election Manifesto (1892)
The Impossibilities of Anarchism (1893)
Fabinism and the Empire (1900)
Socialism for Millionaires (1901)

* Awarded with Nobel Prize in 1925.

2) Oscar Wilde (1856-1900): Irishman, greatest practitioner of Comedy of Manners, lived

in a luxurious life, attitude toward life was a playful, not a deep thinker, father of comedy of
pure entertainment.
Style: Epigrammatic, graceful, polished, full of wit, appealing to audience.
Characteristics: Superficial, not knowledgeable or understanding to life, hackneyed. Tact
of discovering the passing mood of the time and expressing it gracefully.
Important Plays:
i- Lady Windermeres Fan (1892) iii- A Woman of Importance (1893)
ii- An Ideal Husband (1895) iv- The Importance of Being Earnest (1894)
* First three are conventional social melodramas with witty dialogues.
* Last was built on model of popular farce of the time.
* His literary career ended with his imprisonment in 1895.

3) John Galsworthy (1867-1933): Great dramatist, novelist.

Technique: Naturalistic in both, not superficial.
Important plays: His plays deal with social and ethical problems.
The Forsyte Saga (1922): Series of novel with record of changing values of an upper-class
English family.
Strife (1909): Problems of strike, a social play.
Justice (1910): A severe criticism on prison administration, a social play.
The Skin Game (1920): Conflict between old aristocracy and new manufacturing class.
The Silver Box: Old proverb.

Sometimes he carries simplicity of aim and singleness of purpose too far and the result is
that his plays lack human warmth and richness.

4) Harley Granville-Barker (1877-1946): Dramatist who dealt with Domestic Plays and
Problem Plays.
Four Realistic Plays:
The Marrying of Anne Leete (1899): Life Force, attacks convention and hypocrisy.
The Voysey Inheritance (1905): Problems of prostitution.
Waste (1907): Problem of sex.
The Madras House (1910): Social forces.
* Fine delineation of characters
* Realistic style
* Plays are excepts of real life
* Natural dialogue near to ordinary conversation.

5) John Masefield (1878-1967): Imaginative, sternly classical spirit, enthusiastic, logical,

fantastic, realistic, mystic.All these conflicting qualities are seen in The Tragedy of Nan
(1909), a masterpiece.
Melloney Holtspur: Spirit forces, not successful.
The Campden Wonder and Mrs. Harrison: Domestic tragedies.
Other plays are The Daffodil Fields, Reynard the Fox (1919), and Esther and Berenice

6) James.M.Barrie (1860-1937): A skilled technician, Scottish journalist, playwright,

children's book writer.
Work: Imaginative fantasy, humour, tender pathos, crisp dialogues, contrast of characters.
The Admirable Crichton (1902): A drawing room comedy, most characteristic, original
Peter Pan (1904), The Golden Bird and The Golden Age: Childrens story characters.
A Kiss for Cinderella (1916): Fantasy.
The Boy David (1930): A fine picture of candid soul of boyhood, a story from bible.

7) The Irish Dramatic Revival: Reaction against new realistic drama of Shaw and Wilde.
Protagonist: Lady Gregory, W.B.Yeats, Lord Dunsany, and J.M.Synge. Irish dramatists.
Aim: To introduce flavour, richness, and poetry in drama, to give reality in a comprehensive
and natural form.

(i) W.B.Yeats (1865-1939): Leader, interested in Gaelic League formed to revive interest
in old fairy stories and Folk Lore of Irish people, primarily a lyrical poet.
Widely known: The Countess Cathleen (1892) and The Land of Hearts Desire (1894).
Popularity depended upon poetic charm and strangeness than upon dramatic power.
Defect: Organic constructions, lack of proper balance between poetry, action and
characterization.
* Established the Irish Literary Theatre.
* Out of I.L.T. grew National Theatre Society which constructed the famous Abbey Theatre.
* A dramatic lyrical poet failed in dramatic form.

(ii) Lady Gregory (1852-1932):

* Experimented in her drama work.
* Drew her material from the folk lore of her country.
* Wrote Irish historical plays.
* Seven short plays (1909)
Characters: Peasant, more human.
[B]Dialogue:[/B] Joyous.

(iii) John Millington Sygne (1871-1909):

Characteristics: Exercises strictest economy in his play, grim humour, bitterly painful
tragedy.
Riders to the Sea (1909): Greatest tragedy, too harrowing and ruthless.
The Shadow of the Glen: Comedy.
The Playboy of the Western World: Provoked riots, impressive representation of Irish
peasant phrases.

(iv) Sean OCasey (1884-1964): Youngest dramatist, best in portrayal of women.

His plays: Symbolic of the Irish condition. Virtue and vice, heroism and cowardice, beauty
and foulness, poetry and profanity were mingled, mixture of tragedy and comedy as in The
Plough and the Stars.
Faults: Undisciplined power and exuberance.
Satire: The Silver Tassie (1928) and Within the Gates (1933)

8)
POETIC DRAMA
* Revived in 20th century,
* Reaction against the prose plays of Shaw and Wilde, certain loss of emotional touch with
the moral issue.

T.S.Eliot (1888-1956)
Great critic, traditionalist rooted in classicism, innovator of new style, stern realist,
conscious of modern civilization and its problems, a visionary great classical scholar, mystic,
many sided personality.
Classicism---a sort of training of order, poise and right reason.
The Rock: Pageant play.
The Murder in the Cathedral: Commemorating the death of St. Thomas Backet, religious
impulse, strictly interior, outward value is spectacle and commemorative ritual.
The Family Reunion: Hallucination produced from the inherited, illusion of reality.
The Cocktail Party: Most successful, profound and serious theme, typical problem of
ordinary behaviour.
Characters: Symbols, personification of various simple abstract attitudes.

Received a Nobel Prize in 1948.

Stephen Spender (1909-1995)

The Trial of a Judge: Most important and effective piece of poetic drama.

W.H.Auden (1907-1973)
Verse and prose plays, contributed the verse chorus, neat prose dialogue.
Important Plays:
The Dog Beneath the Skin: A gay, satirical farce.
The Ascent of F6 and Across the Frontier: Serious plays dealing with modern problems
through symbolism.

Christopher Fry (1907-present)

Verse and prose plays, comedies e.g. A Phoenix too Frequent, The Ladys Not for burning
and Venus Observed.
* Fantastic wealth of language.
* His plays often betray an air of wonderfully clever improvisations.

9)
Historical and Imaginative Plays
* Latest Movement.
* Causes of Exploitation of historical themes: Deliberate endeavour to escape from the
trammels of nature and to bring back something of the poetic expression of the theatre.

John Drinkwater (1882-1937)

Historical Plays:
Mary Stuart (1921): Study of a woman.
Oliver Crownwell (1922) and Robert E. Lee (1923): political & social problem. Abraham
Lincoln (1918): a great success, made author internationally famous.

Clifford Bax (1886-1962)

Important Poetic Plays:
Socrates (1930), The Venitian (1931), The Immortal Lady (1931), and The Rose Without the
Thorn (1932).
All plays are lyrical, philosophical, characters within patter, on historic facts, imaginative.

OTHER DRAMATISTS

Ashley Dukes (1885-1959): The Man with a Load of Mischief (1924), The Fountain Head
(1928) and Tyle Ulenspiegel (1930).

Rudolf Besier (1878-1942): The Barretts of Wimpole Street.