Modern Drama and its characteristics

Drama, considered to be the oldest genre in literature began as songs praising

Dionysius, Greek God of harvest. Later, it became a dance form and centuries
after, dialogues were included. In the earlier period only mystery plays depicting
stories of the Bible were seen as drama. Later, in the 14 th century, the genre was
divided into miracle and morality plays. The former dealt with lives of saints while
the latter gave more importance to morals and the power of good over evil. First
English Comedy was Ralph Roister Doister by Nicholas Udall and Gorboduc by
Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, the first tragedy. Drama reached its heights
during Elizabethan and Jacobean period due to writers like William Shakespeare,
Ben Jonson, John Webster, John Ford, Thomas Kyd, Thomas Nash, John Lyly,
Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher, Thomas Dekker etc. The
rule of Puritans ended drama and closed down theatres in 1640 as they viewed
art to be contradicting religion and drama was an art form. The restoration period
and revival of drama did not help it reach greater heights because of poetry,
prose and fiction which emerged as much more entertaining and useful to the
society. Drama returned back as a powerful literary genre in the 19 th and 20th
century after Shaw’s essay Quintessence of Ibsenism which he wrote after being
influenced by the dramas of Henrik Ibsen. Ibsen’s dramas and its translations
started to be read widely and the popularity of drama resulted in the birth of new
dramatists.

The three phases of modern drama were distinct in their way. First phase
included dramas of George Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy and other Shavian
dramatists. Second phase concentrated on the Irish nationalism after the Irish
Home Rule Movement and included the works of William Butler Yeats, J M Synge
etc and Third phase concentrating on poetic dramas that tried to re-establish the
superiority drama had during Elizabethan and Jacobean age. Most important
dramatists were T S Eliot and Christopher Fry.
CHARACTERISTICS

 REALISM: This literary technique gave more importance to expressing

reality as expressed by human beings without much imagination including
imagery, figurative language, similes and metaphors that makes a work
artificial and away from what is real. They mainly concentrated on plot,
character, dialogue, diction, setting and themes. The two types of realism
were poetic and social. Poetic realism focused on the unpleasant reality in
the life of peasants during the Irish movement while social realism
expressed struggles during depression and the ill effects of capitalism.
 NATURALISM: It is a form of realism where importance was given to
nature, which is real. The belief was on the importance of nature in
moulding an individual. Not much importance was given to advancements
in technology as they were idealised, contradictory to the belief of reality.
 ABSURDISM: This theatrical existentialist movement tried to analyze the
philosophical questions of life and rejected God. They viewed human
beings as the centre of the universe which is filled with all forms of chaos,
struggles and pains. Absurdism was pioneered by the Danish Philosopher
Soren Kierkegaard who tried to reject the faith humans have in God. The
idea of meaning and meaninglessness is entirely based on human beings
and Albert Camus thus believes that life being meaningless can have two
responses. One can end it all or find new meanings. Intuitions were given
importance rather than language. Different forms of Absurdism include:
 Symbolism : Symbolism or Aestheticism used symbols to convey
ideas and meaning. Every image, dream, fantasy etc had a concrete
symbol which it conveyed and thus revealed the theme of a play.
 Dadaism : Pioneered by German writer Hugo ball, the idea of Dada
dealt upon the philosophy that society’s idea of nationalism and
capitalism was wrong and hence reacted against such regime. It was
a reaction against World War I. Their ideas contradicted the society’s
believes, values and hence they rejected authoritarianism. In
literature Dadaism opposed harmony, arouse laughter, provided
artistic freedom, spontaneity etc.
  Surrealism : Influenced by Dadaism and founded by Andre Breton,
surrealism sought to bind contradictions by juxtaposing uncommon
images. It gave more importance to desires in unconscious mind.
Actions and surprises were also seen as important in surrealistic
works.
 Theatre of Cruelty : Antonin Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty was a
complex combination of surrealism, symbolism, ritualism and
improvisation. His view of theatre was that of a representational
medium that presents and represents equally. He believed that his
theatre would purge the antisocial and murderous impulses of
spectators who see them being played on the stage using a lot of
metaphors. Theatre personalities like Jerzy Grotowsky, Peter Brook,
practitioners of Living Theatre and playwrights like Arthur Adamov
and Jean Genet were influenced by Artaud’s theatre.
 Expressionism: Expressionism focuses on subjective expressions in
art where slight changes are made to evoke emotions. It began in
Germany in early 20th century. The characters could be either
speaking short direct sentences or long lyrical expanses depending
on the play. It focused on sorrow and lamentation in the present and
warning of chaos and catastrophe in the future. The dramas were
divided into episodes and spiritual awakening was also given
importance.
 Impressionism: Impressionism in art wanted to free the audience
from objective reality thereby helping them have their subjective
perceptions or impressions. The audience thus engages with the art
form recreating the experience of the artist through imagination.
 DIDACTICISM: This literary philosophy wanted art to instruct, inform and
explain along with the pleasure it provides. They contain morals, values or
positive attributes which one can follow in life.
 FEMINISM: This literary movement supported equality of women and
brought many women writers to limelight who explained the role of
women in society and how they are made to feel inferior to men. The works
 portrayed strong representation of women characters who undergo various
experiences in life.
 DISILLUSIONMENT: Disillusionment focused on belief of what is real over
what is mere illusion. It began after the despair caused by the World Wars
and reality of life portraying poverty, unemployment etc were depicted in
literature too.

MAN AND SUPERMAN AS A MODERNIST PLAY

George Bernard Shaw’s four-act drama, Man and Superman was

published in 1903 and first acted in 1905at the Court Theatre. It was said
that the character from the play, John Tanner, a well educated man, fully
represented Shaw’s philosophy of life. The play, along with the Epistle
Dedicatory and the Revolutionist’s Handbook, fully represented Shaw’s
ideas of Creative Evolution, the Life Force and the Superman.
The appearance of Man and Superman was a landmark in the history of
British drama. For the first time, a long play was presented in which
philosophic ideas were dramatised. The dialogue consisted at places of long
speeches in which the ideas were explained and illustrated. There was a
long debate between Don Juan and the Devil. Such things had never been
seen on the stage. It was a typical drama of ideas. It had not mere pointless
amusement for three hours. People were made to think. The characters
only talked and talked and did nothing on the stage.
The play is a drama of ideas. Shaw’s purpose in writing the play was to
propagate his ideas about sex attraction, marriage, democracy, socialism,
the need of the Superman and the grip of the Life Force over women and
men. The plot is very thin and is introduced only as a peg on which to hang
the ideas. The characters are interesting, but we look at them chiefly as
participants in the debates that dominate this drama.
It is also the drama of instincts. In this play, Shaw sets out to examine the
basis of the attraction which men and women feel for each other. The
world’s dramatists have called it “romantic attachment”. But Shaw does not
agree. He distrusts the emotions. He does not show any romantic
attachments between couples in his plays. In fact, his hell is a place of
perpetual romance which becomes tedious even for a person like Don Juan.

MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL AS A MODERNIST DRAMA

Thomas Stearns Eliot’s play, Murder in the Cathedral, published in 1935

is modern as it shows two powers struggling for supremacy. At one side
there is the religious institution or the church and on the other is monarchy.
On a more philosophical level, the play speaks to elements of the human
experience: fear of death, temptation, hunger for power, and the ultimate
sacrifice for what one believes. The play imbibes the conventions of Greek
drama, and combines myth, ritual, and poetry to create a heightened
theatrical effect.
The versification in Eliot’s play is flexible, avoids Shakespearean overtone
and has a natural style. It is suitable to the emotions which are to be
expressed and the character who expresses them.
It is the power of the dramatic verse that gives the play its unique quality
of unity and intensity. As poetic drama demands that it deals with emotions
and themes fundamental to mankind, Murder in the Cathedral deals not
merely with story of the murder of Thomas Becket; not only with his
martyrdom, but with its significance for the common man. It deals with
man’s relationship to God. In this aspect the play becomes a modern
religious one. Such a fundamental aspect of human existence is fit for
poetic treatment. “Imagined with intense emotion, it demands expression
in heightened speech”. Another important fact of modern poetic drama is
seen in the play which is that of permanent relevance or universality. The
vocabulary, idiom and rhythm of the language are perfectly modulated to
suit the occasion- the Chorus is a perfect example of this.
 There is “doubleness of action” in Murder in the Cathedral; the
simultaneous revelation of more than one plane of reality. It is not limited
to the representation of more than one plane of reality. There is
acceptance and spiritual understanding integrated with the play.

WAITING FOR GODOT AS A MODERNIST DRAMA

Waiting for Godot, published in 1952 follows the same style like many of
Samuel Beckett’s other plays. There is persistent mood of brooding decay
throughout. Watt, for example, begins with fading light, and that murky
twilight, reminiscent of the evening light in Waiting for Godot, is typical of
the world Beckett creates. It is a world of indistinctness, of shadowy
groping after unclearly conceived objectives, a world in which bright, clear
light does not penetrate. It is particularly a static world devoid of dynamic
motion. The presence of anti-heroes in bleak landscape, futile search for
metaphysical concerns, stream of consciousness technique, grotesque
humour and recurring motifs are the key features of Beckett’s plays.
The play Waiting for Godot is quintessence of existentialism in the
popular, and most relevant sense of the term- a philosophy which
underscores the incomprehensibility and, therefore the meaninglessness of
the universe, the nausea which man feels on being confronted with the fact
of existence, the praiseworthiness of the act of defiance man may perform-
acts which are taken, on faith, on self-justifying, while rationally speaking
they have no justification because they have no possibility of success.
Like many modern plays, Waiting for Godot is undramatic but highly
theatrical. Essential to drama, surely, is not merely situation but situation in
movement, even in beautifully shaped movement. Beckett’s play has a
shape of non-dramatic sort; two strips of action are laid side by side like
railway tracks. The strips are One Day and the Following Day in the lives of a
couple of bums. There cannot be any drama, because the author’s
conclusion is that the two days are the same. That there are also things that
change is indicated by a play-within-this-play which also has two parts. The
first time, that the characters of the inner play come on they are a brutal
Master and his pitiful Man; the second time they are both equally pitiful
because the Master has gone blind. In the course of the play nothing
happens. Such dramatic progress as there is, is not towards a climax, but
towards a perpetual postponement. Vladimir and Estrogen are waiting for
Godot, but this gentleman’s appearance is not prepared with any
recognisable theatrical tension, for the audience knows well though from
the beginning that Godot will never come. The dialogue is studded with
words that have no meaning for normal ears; repeatedly the play
announces that it has come to a stop, and will have to start again; never
does it reconcile itself with reason. The ideas of man’s self estrangement,
void of nothingness and non nihilism make it a totally existentialist play.
The play also deals with absurdity in human situation, inaction, flexible
individual identity, nothingness and time and space.

LOOK BACK IN ANGER AS A MODERNIST PLAY

Naturalism in drama, in its ordinary forms, aims at “putting ourselves

and our situation on the stage.” The locally convincing speech and
atmosphere of one generation in course of time becomes dated, and a new
local style is then launched against it. John Osborne’s play published in
1956, Look Back in Anger gains central importance due to this factor. At the
time of its first production, it had the appearance of a breakthrough byt
which was essentially a delayed recognition of an already altered style
which had not broken through to the stage though outside the theatre it
was already known. It is, in one sense, a remarkable play that achieves this
public alteration of style; only a genuine power can effectively dramatize
the necessary sense of release. At the same time, any particular play, which
achieves this, gets an excessive historical weight and representative
importance.
 The nature of Jimmy who rages at others, at himself, and at a general
condition expresses the authentic power and intense feeling. The intense
feeling is one of a frustrated anger, a prolonged waiting which should be
broken at any cost by means of a demonstration or a shout. The play
depicts, the traditional room of a naturalist theatre, the room as trap with
sounds and messages of frustrating world coming in from outside, and with
the inmates of the room looking on and raging at their world. What comes
from the inmates is the trapped angry slang of people’s shut up too long,
and of one man raging, in a way on behalf of them all,but, in default of a
visible general condition. The sickness of a society is re-enacted in this
particular enclosed form, as the sickness of available relationships and of
this man at their centre.
The importance of Look Back in Anger was not that it was a better play
than Osborne’s later works, but that it introduced a new kind of drama to
the English stage. If we call it comedy, we must not make the mistake of
thinking that it is in any way like the comedy of Sheridan or Wilde, or the
artificial drawing-room comedies that have been popular in the commercial
theatre. The subject of Look Back in Anger is basically the hidden class-war
between those who have grown up in comfortable middle-class homes, and
those who have fought their way up the social stairs by their own
intelligence. Osborne shows us something, of the married life of a young
man of the latter type, and his wife- a girl of equal intelligence but higher
social class, who is unable to understand his anger and frustration.
The play is basically a kitchen-sink drama. The term was generally used
by those who did not care for plays like Look Back in Anger, and who
perhaps saw the dark comedy of the time as a sign of imminent social
revolution. After Look Back in Anger, the phrase “angry young man” too
became popular as a description of those who, like Osborne, were unhappy
with the injustice and inequality which still seemed to exist in Britain
despite the recent “victory of democracy” in the Second World War.
THE HOMECOMING AS A MODERNIST PLAY

The Homecoming is one of Nobel laureate Harold Pinter’s most

compelling and critically acclaimed plays. Disturbing, enigmatic, and
darkly comic, it's been staged continually since its 1965 debut. Pinter’s
own words in 1970 when accepting the German Shakespeare Prize in
Hamburg point to the play’s mix of simple language and plot with utterly
inscrutable characters: “I can sum up none of my plays. I can describe
none of them, except to say: that is what happened. That is what they
said. That is what they did.”
On the surface, the plot, it is simplistic; the eldest son of a family living
in North London returns to his home country for a visit while touring
Europe, having moved to America some years earlier to pursue his
education and his career. He brings with him his wife, who sparks old
tensions among the family concerning the behavior of the now-deceased
matriarch. The stage is thus set for the characters to play out their
fantasies and reenact their memories, all in a style that becomes
increasingly sexual, blatant, and confrontational.
It is no accident that Pinter is usually hailed together of the masters
of the design called stage of the Absurd, and therefore the Homecoming
fits neatly into such a category. With Pinter, it is not so much the
premises of the play (there are no animal transformations going on) that
are absurd as it is the characters' dialogue and their behavior; it is more
the human reaction that ventures into the absurd rather than the
external action itself. In The Homecoming, the premise of a father, his
two sons, and his brother cohabitation is totally natural, as is that
the return of his second son to ascertain his family as part of his trip to
Europe. However, the sexually charged nature of the stories that the
characters relate, and the visiting wife's open advances towards the other
sons and her renunciation of her family in favor of a life as a prostitute,
are anything but commonplace.
The Homecoming is also cited as one of the later plays that fall under
the umbrella of Pinter's style dubbed "Comedy of Menace." A pun on the
classic style Comedy of Manners, the term Comedy of Menace refers to
plays that create humor through insult, vulgarity, and a complete lack of
propriety. Whereas in the Comedy of Manners the customs and manners
of the day are parodied or create humorous messes that the main
characters must sort out, in the Comedy of Menace all notion of following
social norms is thrown out of the window. This can be seen within
the open way during which the characters within the Homecoming
discuss sex and violence, with relations outlining a prostitution contract
for the visiting son's wife in his presence.
When asked what his plays were about, Pinter once declared that they
were about "the weasel under the cocktail cabinet." This statement helps
us understand Pinter's often absurdist style, but it also suggests that the
actual plots of many of his early plays are secondary in importance to the
themes that they display. His plays The Homecoming and The Birthday
Party are two works that focus on the nature of the family, zeroing in on
the duplicity inherent in many of the relationships between parents and
their children, between siblings, or between husband and wife. While
many American playwrights of the 20th century, such as Tennessee
Williams, used realism as a tool to portray explosive themes, Pinter
instead gains focus through an absurdist lens. While this sacrifices some
of the believability of the play, it allows him to convey his message to the
audience more directly and poignantly.