British theatre

British theatre I

I. British theatre up to 19th century
• before 16th century – sources – Religious plays – mystery plays (life of saints)
– miracle plays (Bible themes)
– Pagan and folk plays – everyday problems and events from people’s lives
– Greek and Latin drama – tragedy, revenge

• 16th century – first half of 17th century – Renaissance in British drama – famous playwrights :
SHAKESPEARE, MARLOW, JOHNSON, KID
1642 – closing of theatres
1660 – theatres reopened, but didn’t develop in the former fame until 20th century

• second half 17th – 19th century
Restoration drama – first actresses
Comedy of manners – the immoral manners of the society, no proper plot
WILLIAM CONGREVE – Love for Love
RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN – The School for Scandal
Satirical drama – 18th century
JOHN GAY – The Beggar’s Opera
HENRY FIELDING – The Author’s Farce

II. Theatre at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries
• revival of British drama begins with OSCAR WILDE, until then prose and poetry dominate
OSCAR WILDE – conversational wit
An ideal husband, The importance of being Earnest
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW – interested in political life, education of the public, satire and wit
Saint Joan, Major Barbora, Pygmalion, The Devil’s Disciple

• 1898 – foundation of the Irish Literary Theatre (Abbey Theatre) by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, J. M. SYNGE and others; it was aimed to perform Irish plays from Irish authors about Irish themes, but it expanded to perform English writers as well
J. M. SYNGE – The Playboy of the Western World
SEAN O’CASEY – The Plough and the Stars

Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) – Irish-born writer and wit, who was the chief proponent of the aesthetic movement, based on the principle of art for art’s sake. Wilde was a novelist, playwright, poet, and critic.
He was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College in Dublin. As a youngster he was exposed to the brilliant literary talk of the day at his mother’s Dublin salon. Later, as a student at the University of Oxford, he excelled in classics, wrote poetry and incorporated the Bohemian life-style of his youth into a unique way of life.
He settled in London and in 1884 married a wealthy Irish woman with whom he had two sons. Thereafter he devoted himself exclusively to writing. With little dramatic training, he proved he had a natural talent for stagecraft and theatrical effects and a true gift for farce.

In 1895, at the peak of his career, Wilde became the central figure in one of the most sensational court trials of the century. Wilde, who had been a close friend of the young Lord Alfred Douglas, was accused by Douglas’s father of sodomy. Sentenced to two years of hard labour in prison, he emerged financially bankrupt and spiritually downcast. He spent the rest of his life in Paris.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) can be characterised by adroitly contrived plots and remarkably witty dialogues. The plot is very elaborate and full of sudden changes of each one’s position and unexpected revelations. The main characters are Jack, Cecily, Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen, Algernon, Dr Chasuble and Miss Prism.

The Canterville Ghost is a witty play based on Wilde’s novel. A modern American family comes to England to buy a castle where an evil ghost is said to live. The Mum, Virginia and Washington represent the modern, elaborate and technically developed America, they are extremely proud of their history (which can be seen from the children’s names) and they make fun of all English “ancient” traditions. Duke, the owner of the castle, doesn’t want to sell it, because he is a little afraid of the ghost, his ancient origin. The ghost killed his wife and that’s why he can’t die now although he longs to. Finally the Duke decides to sell it and the Ghost tries to scare the “ridiculous” Americans. But they are not afraid at all and the Ghost gives up. The Duke falls in love with Virginia and Virginia becomes a friend of the Ghost. She manages to rescue him from the spell and the Ghost finally dies. In the happy end the Duke asks Virginia for her hand and when he asks her what actually happened in the chamber where she was with the Ghost, a loud laughing can be heard.

British theatre II

III. British theatre in the second half of the 20th century
• since the 50’s and 60’s a generation of brilliant playwrights occurred – it is often called Second renaissance in British drama

• Absurd drama – 50’s and 60’s; lost of ideals, destruction of communication, a man lost in huge, unknown and elaborate world, no purpose for living
SAMUEL BECKETT – Irish author, moved to Paris, his plays are minimalist with everything – scenery, actors …
Waiting for Godot
HAROLD PINTER
The Birthday party, The Caretaker

• Angry young men – the 60’s; they don’t like upper class, disdain conventions and manners of the upper class as well as the hypocrisy, the playwrights also wanted to express the disappointment of political situation, social problems, hope in Labours
JOHN OSBORNE – Look Back in Anger
ARNOLD WHISKER – emphases social issues, reflection of bad economic situation
Kitchen, Chicken Soup with Barley, Chips with Everything

• Second wave – mid 60’s; dissatisfaction of the world-wide situation, feeling of a selfdestructiveness of man, people
EDWARD BOND – Lear, Bingo
JOE ORTON – Loot
TOM STOPPARD – Russia took often as his theme
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

• Third wave – 70’s to 90’s; comedies but also serious plays
PETER SHAFFER – psychology
Amadeus, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Equus
ALAN AYCKBOURN – comedies about middle class
Norman Conquest
DAVID HARE – doesn’t show Great Britain in positive light
The Map of the World
MICHAEL FRAYN – comedies, wit, conversational humour
Noises off
BRIAN FRIEL – Irish history, nature
Translations

Theatre of the absurd
• main representatives are Ionesco, Adamov, Pinter, Genet, Beckett, Stoppard

• when the Waiting for Godot was first performed, it was received with acclaim and enthusiasm by the public, but wasn’t appreciated by critics, because this style was something new, still developing and it wasn’t defined yet

• absurd originally means ‘out of harmony’ in a musical context, or ridiculous, illogical, unreasonable

• the attitude of the theatre of the absurd expresses absurdity of our lives, it says that the crucial and basic values in our lives were shaken through ages, that we can’t find answers on our questions in religion as we thought before, there are no things we could rely on

• when applied to the theatre, characters live without purpose, they are lonely, they are cut off their religion and roots, everything seems senseless, there is no story, no plot

• the main features that occur in the absurd plays are:
devaluation of language – people can’t communicate with each other, words often mean nothing, people can’t understand what anybody else wanted to say, big use of phrases, silence also plays an important role
importance of actions – there is often only a very modest scenery and few actors so it is important what they do, their gestures and behaviour
indefinable characters
uncertain time, fusing of more timelines

• we can see some examples of the inability of communication in the Harold Pinter’s Last to go : there are two men who are chatting, but actually no one of them is interested in the conversation and they don’t even listen to each other; they talk about things that have no value when knowing them but they don’t start any reasonable conversation, they still repeat the senseless things which they have already said

Tom Stoppard’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
• there are only 6 actors in this play plus the orchestra (which plays an important role in the play) and a very modest scenery; there are three rooms on the stage: the cell with two beds, the office with table and two chairs and the school with a school desk; the story is placed in Russia probably in late 60’s

• in the cell there are two patients – both are named Alexander Ivanov, but to differ them one is called Alexander and the second one Ivanov; Alexander is a political prisoner, who had been prisoned, but he was released and put to a psychiatric hospital (in the prison he went on hunger strike and if he had died, it would have been an impositive sign for the other about what was going on in Russia) and Ivanov, who is a real madman (he thinks that he has an orchestra in his head)

• in the school there is Sacha (a son of Alexander) and a Teacher and in the office there is the Doctor

• the Doctor’s duty is to make Alexander admit that he is mad and what he had done or said against the regime was caused by his madness; Alexander refuses and even when his son goes to persuade him, he doesn’t give up

• at the end of the play Colonel, probably not only a doctor but also a communist of a high post, enters the cell, he mistakes Alexander for Ivanov and the result is that they both are considered healthy

• the orchestra symbolises the society, where everybody has to play strictly in a harmony, anybody can’t differ; that’s what the Teacher told Sacha, she tried to tell him that everybody who does not support the orchestra is bad; the triangle symbolises dissidents, in the orchestra it is something unharmonical and disturbing; what dominates to the orchestra is an organ, which is very strong and powerful and it represents the communist leader, maybe also Colonel in the play

• at the end all go to the orchestra and they play with other people in harmony, which is also a symbol of resignation