Reading in the Modern Context

Introduction

Drama is one of the ancient forms of literature next to poetry. For a thearitical product to exist many elements must combine: the actor/character, his/her body language and voice, visual and technological equipments, the space where the performance happens, and an audience. The script is what joins these elements together. If these elements are basic for theatre drama to exist, what makes the modern drama different? Let us first have a look at the modern British drama works.

Questions for discussion: -How did drama change through time? - How did the theatre benefit from new technologies of the 20th century?

 

 

 

 

Modern British Drama

The modern British theatre is said to begin with the Irish production of plays which represented Ireland’s experience of colonialism. Hence, it is said to be a purely nationalist drama. Still, Samuel Beckett, William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, and their contemporaries created satirical, political, and rebellious drama that could emulate the socially and politically conscious audience of the time. Among the themes discussed in their works is colonialism, human being’s alienation in the modern industrialised world, stereotyping images of the other (for example women), and confrontation of taboo. Theatre of Exorcism[1], Theatre of the Absurd[2], theatre of Silence, and the reappearance of the theatre of Manners became trends of the modern theatre.

Samuel Beckett, an Irish playwright and eminent theatre practitioner, enriched the theatre of the Absurd with his experimental plays like Waiting for Godot in which he openly discusses the meaningless sense of life. The play tells the story of two friends who are waiting for the coming of Godot, a character whom they do not know, yet argue all the time about his coming. The senselessness, the meaningless, and the absurdity of their quest reveal the absurdity of living in the modern world. Many existentialist questions are raised in the play. The play’s plot represents modernist features like fragmentation, repetition, absurd speeches and dialogues, and unstable minded characters.

George Bernard Shaw, another Irish modern playwright, showed more interest in social and economic modern life. His plays depict life as it really is with experimenting techniques at the level of writing. In his Mrs Warren’s Profession, he openly discusses women issues like gender inequality and women’s subjugation through a mother/daughter stereotypical exemplification which brings the taboo world into discussion. He also brings the social class division and how patriarchal dominating society keeps women always in lower class compared to men thanks to domination of income resources. Harold Pinter also discusses such themes in his play The Homecoming in which the male characters depend on a woman’s prostitution job as an income for their living.

In Murder in the Cathedral, T. S. Elliot raises issues of religion, spirituality, and the long lasting conflict with the church and conflicts within king palaces. Oppression, poverty, martyrdom, and sacrifice are themes Elliot develops to question truth about the sacredness of the church at the time.

Features of the Modernist Drama

-Thanks to advances in technology and industrialisation, the theatre became more sophisticated in terms of setting and production.

-Thanks to the press, modern drama has become more read than attended. Even the genre of writing changed from poetic to prosaic since it created narratives to tell.

-Modernist drama actually has become philosophically and ideologically driven: modern trends like Feminism, Social Darwinism, Marxism, and Psychology changed plays’ thematic concerns.

-Modernist plays have become more interested in women issues, man and society conflicts, spirituality rather than religion, and social class struggles.

-Characterisation started to matter more than the plot or the setting.

-The language of drama works has become symbolic because modernist literature focuses on showing rather than telling. 

Conclusion

The modern theatre witnessed many changes due to the political, philosophical, and economic transformations of the time. Industrialisation and technology brought new techniques and improvements to drama and thearitical production while the difficulties of living between two World Wars negatively reflected the thematic concerns of the modern works. Disillusionment, alienation, absurdity, and social conflicts are among many other themes developed in modern plays.