5th SEMESTER

BA ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

APPRECIATING DRAMA AND THEATRE

Prepared by:
Sumayya CP
Asst. Pro. Department of English
CPA College of Global Studies

CPA COLLEGE OF GLOBAL STUDIES, PUTHANATHANI

COURSE DESCRIPTION

• COURSE CODE: ENG5B07

• TITLE OF THE COURSE: APPRECIATING DRAMA AND THEATRE
• SEMESTER IN WHICH THE COURSE IS TO BE TAUGHT: 5
• NO. OF CREDITS: 4
• NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 90 (5 hrs per week)

OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE:

• To introduce the students to the basic elements of drama, including the historical
progress of drama in different continents.
• To foster an ability in the students for appreciating drama as an art form.
• To familiarize the students with the different genres and masters of drama.
• To facilitate the learners to critically go beyond the theatrical performances to the
texts and approach them critically from various standpoints.

COURSE SUMMARY:
• Module 1: 16 hrs
• Module 2: 30 hrs
• Module 3: 20 hrs
• Module 4: 12 hrs
• Evaluation 12 hrs
• Total 90 hrs

COURSE DETAILS:

Module 1: Drama - Some Key Concepts

• Basic Elements of Drama: Tragedy, Comedy, Tragicomedy; The Constituent Parts of
Drama – Plot, Character,
• Thought, Song, Spectacle, Diction, Three Unities, Tragic Hero, Chorus, Simple plot
and Complex plot; The
• basic structure of tragedy
• History of Drama: Greek Theatre and Drama, Miracle Plays and Morality Plays,
University Wits,
• Shakespearean Theatre, Restoration Drama, Sentimental Drama, Anti-sentimental
Drama, Comedy of
• Manners, Drama of the Romantic Period, Decadence, Problem Play, Realism, Ibsen
and Bernard Shaw. Avantgarde:
• Expressionism & Epic Theatre, Angry Young Man, The Theatre of the Absurd,
Comedy of Menace, The
• Theatre of Cruelty, Feminist theatre, Street theatre, Ritualistic Theatre, The Poor
theatre, Radio Drama.

Module 2: Classical Drama

• William Shakespeare: Othello

Module 3: World Plays

• 1. Anton Chekov: The Bear/ The Boor
 • 2. Edward Albee: Zoo Story
• 3. Kobo Abe: The Man who turned into a Stick – trans. Donald Keene
Module 4: Drama Adaptation
• 1. Roman Polanski: Macbeth (1971)
• 2. Syamaprasad: Akale (2004)

Module 1: Basic Elements of Drama

Tragedy

• Tragedy is the specific type of dramatic representation of serious action which

typically ends with disastrous conclusion for the central character (hero/protagonist)
• Greeks used the word for the first time in first century BC to refer to the particular
kind of play enacted as part of festivals. It was often sponsored by the local
governments and the ambience of the play was more that of a religious ceremony than
an entertainment. Most of the plays drew their themes from legends, myths and
history Many of the plays were adaptations from Homer, the Greek epic poet.
• Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain
magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic embellishment, the
several kinds being found in separate parts of the play, in the form of action, not of
narration, through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions (Prof
Butcher's translation).
• Catharsis: The concept of 'catharsis' is a major contribution of Aristotle to literature
It literally means purgation or purification. The concept puts forth the idea that the
tragic representations of suffering, misfortune or defeat do not produce negative
emotions of sorrow or gloom in the audience, they instead leave the audience relieved
or event exalted through the process of purification of these emotions in the minds of
the spectators.
• Therefore catharsis can be considered as the pleasure of pity and fear'. The concept of
catharsis can be related to the concept of rasa in Indian Aesthetics Rasa too is the
sublimated feeling aroused in the spectators when they watch elemental feelings
dramatically represented on stage

• Tragic hero: Aristotelian concept of a tragic hero requires a protagonist who is a

person with loftier characteristics that makes him better than the ordinary people. Yet
he should not be completely good or perfect. He will have a tragic flaw or error in
judgment that will eventually result in his downfall The misfortune of the tragic hero
arouses pity in the audience since he is not an evil man and his misfortune is greater
 than he deserves. They feel fear as they recognise similar possibilities of error in their
thoughts and actions.

• Revenge Tragedies were popular tragic dramas during the Elizabethan period. They
were modelled on Senecan Tragedies which revelled on murder, revenge, ghosts, and
bloodshed. The Spanish Tragedy (1586) by Thomas Kyd belongs to this group,
Christopher Marlow's The Jeap of Malta (1569) too belongs to this mode. The
greatest tragedies like The Duchess of Malfi and Hamlet can be considered as
innovations on Senecan Tragedies or Revenge Tragedies
• The Elizabethan age of late sixteenth and early seventeenth century are considered as
the golden period of English Tragedies. Shakespeare, Chapman, Webster, Philip
Beaumont and Fletcher wrote their famous works during the period.
• But the Elizabethan tragedies deviated considerably from the Aristotelian concept of
tragedy. They introduced humorous characters in tragic plots and do not conform to
the concepts of dramatic unities of time and place of action.
• Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen is a major figure who wrote during the latter half
of the nineteenth century. Many of his plays like A Doll's House, Ghosts and An
Enemy of the People deals with social and political issues and belong to the group of
Problem Plays.
• Arthur Miller, the American playwright is yet another prominent figure. All My Sons
(1947) and Death of a Salesman (1949) are two of his major plays.
• American Eugene O'Neill is yet another prominent figure in the modern period.
Mourning Becomes Electra, one of his most popular plays, is an adaptation of
Aeschylus' Oresteia. Murder in the Cathedral (1935) by T S Eliot is a noteworthy
contribution in the pre-war period. It adopts the Greek convention and is written in
verse and incorporates elements from medieval miracle and morality plays.

Comedy
• The word 'comedy is derived from the Greek verb that means "to revel". Comedies
were traditionally staged in ancient Greece in the festivals of god Dionysius, the god
of fertility. These festivals are connected to the fertility cults.
• Aristotle in Poetics observes that comedy has its origin from the phallic songs. He
further observes that while tragedy imitated men who are better than the average,
comedy imitated men who are worse
• Comedy in drama is the kind of play which is primarily intended to amuse us. The
characters and the difficult situations they are in are created in such a way to engage
our pleasurable attention.
• The basic concept of comedy right from Aristotle to the contemporary times is
cantered on human being as social beings, not as private individuals.
• Therefore the major function of comedy has always been to highlight the oddities and
eccentricities of people or communities and to correct them. . Comedies can be
broadly divided into the following types:
1. Comedy of Manners: It originated from the New Comedy of the Greek Menander (342-
291 BC) and was developed by Roman dramatists Plautus and Terence subsequently in
ancient Rome. The play typically has stock characters such as a clever servant, wealthy rival
etc. The Shakespearean play Much Ado About Nothing is a fine example of English comedy
of manners. The Restoration Comedy (1660-1700) that dealt with the relations and intrigues
of people living in sophisticated upper-class society was a polished form of the comedy of
manners. It was influenced by French writer Moliere (1622-1673).

2. Comedy of Humours

• It was the type of comedy fashioned by Ben Jonson and perfected in his play
Everyman Out of His Humour (1600). The Elizabethan playwright designed comedies
based on the ancient physiological theory of the four humours. The humours were
believed to be the four basic fluids - blood, phlegm, choler and melancholy. These
fluids were considered to be responsible for determining the physical conditions as
well as the character of a person. An imbalance in any particular temperament was
believed to be the basis of four kinds of disposition. They were- sanguine, phlegmatic,
choleric and melancholic. In the comedy of humours each of the major characters
belonged to a particular humour that gave him a characteristic distortion or
eccentricity of disposition. William Wycherley, Sir George Etherege, William
Congreve and other dramatists of the Restoration period produced many popular
dramas of this particular variety.

3. Romantic Comedy

• This particular type of comedy often involves a love affair of a charming and
engaging heroine. They may encounter many difficulties. But they often overcome
these difficulties to end in a happy union or marriage. Romantic comedy bloomed
during the Elizabethan period and they were modelled on prose romances.
Shakespeare's popular comedy As You Like It (1599) is modelled on Rosalynde, a
prose romance by Thomas Lodge. The Romantic comedies in general portray an
idyllic setting, like a wood or a faraway island where the worries and troubles of the
ordinary world do not impede the ideal love affair of the romantic pairs. The Forest of
Arden in As You Like It and the woods in A Midsummer Night's Dream are such
idyllic places where the action moves from the world of conflict and trouble into a
scenic world of beauty and tranquillity.

4. Satiric Comedy

• These comic productions ridiculed political or philosophic doctrines. It often attacked

deviations from standard social order. Greek Aristophanes (450-385 BC) is said to be
the father of Satiric Comedy. Ben Johnson, the Elizabethan playwright wrote satiric
comedy to expose the evils in society. Volpone and The Alchemist are fine examples
from Jonson of this type of plays.
5. Farce

• It is the kind of comedy designed for simple hearty laughter, often called belly laughs.
Exaggerated and caricatured characters often figured up in such plays. Farce was a
regular component in medieval morality plays. Farcical elements account for much of
the comedy in some of the Shakespearean plays like Merry Wives of Windsor and
Taming of the Shrew.

High and Low Comedy

• High Comedy can be defined as the intellectual laughter often arising from the
intelligent spectators who remain detached from the action. George Meredith in his
classical essay "The Idea of Comedy (1877) considers the comedy of manners as the
typical form of high comedy. Low Comedy relies on slapstick humour, boisterous or
clownish physical activity or jokes for comic effect.

Tragicomedy

• Tragicomedies are dramatic forms that transgressed the conventional concepts of the
classical Greek drama. They mixed up the standard norms of characters, subject
matter and typical plot forms of Tragedy and Comedy. One can find characters of
high degree and low degree in those plays
• The term is coined by the Roman dramatist Plautus in the second century BC.
Amphitryon, a play by Plautus shows a reversal of roles traditionally attributed to
them.
• Tragicomedies represented a serious action that would bring a tragic turn out to the
protagonist. Yet it would often be averted by a sudden reversal of circumstance and
would conclude happily. The Faithful Shepherdess (1608), a play by John Fletcher is
a typical example of the genre. The Merchant of Venice can thus be considered as a
tragicomedy even though traditionally it is regarded as a Shakespearean Comedy.
Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest- the last plays of Shakespeare,
belong to the tragicomic group.
• With the advent of realism in the later 19th century, tragicomedies underwent yet
another revision. It mingled the tragic and comic elements. The Ibsen plays like
Ghosts (1881) and The Wild Duck (1884) belonged to this genre.
• In the modern period tragicomedies became synonymous with absurd drama as they
focussed on laughter as the sole solace for men confronted with the emptiness and
meaninglessness of existence. Endgame (1958) by Samuel Beckett and The Dumb
Waiter (1960) by Harold Pinter are fine examples of this genre.
The Constituent Parts of Drama
1. Plot

• Aristotle used the term mythos to refer to plot. He regarded Plot as the most important
component of a tragedy. Plot can be defined as the main events of a play devised and
arranged by the playwright as an interrelated sequence of events and actions.
• Plot and Characters are interdependent critical concepts. Plot is different from the
story. Story is mere summary of the play that shows the bare outline of what happens
in a play
• The following concepts constitute a plot: a. Protagonist- The central/chief character in
a plot. They were traditionally known as Hero/ Heroine. The plot is generally woven
around their actions and fate.

b. Antagonist- The protagonist is often pitted against the antagonist. The antagonist is
often called a Villain if he is distinctly evil and cruel. Sometimes the antagonist can
be either the fate or the circumstances that plot creates against the protagonist.

c. Foil- is a Character who shows a sharp contrast in temperament to the protagonist.

A foil is introduced to stress and highlight the distinctive temperament of the
protagonist. Laertes, the man of action is a foil to the doubting Hamlet in
Shakespeare's play.

d. Suspense- The play retains the consistent interest of the viewer through the element
of Suspense. The lack of certainty on the part of the spectator about what is going to
happen next in the play is called suspense. Suspense is often enhanced by the
sympathy of the spectator with the protagonist of the play. He would be eagerly
watching the play to see what would eventually happen to his favourite character(s).
The success of a play depends upon how effectively the playwright is capable of
maintaining suspense in a spectator.

e. Intrigue- it is a scheme devised to fool other characters in a play. The success of an

intrigue depends on the ignorance or gullibility of the person(s) against whom it is
devised. Iago successfully intrigues against Othello in the Shakespearean tragedy
making use of the gullibility of the protagonist

f. The Beginning, Middle and End in a plot- Aristotle conceived these three elements
as essential to a unified plot. The beginning introduces the main action in a way that
anticipates further action. The middle presumes what has gone before and recovers
something to follow The end follows what has gone before but requires nothing more.

g. Exposition -Exposition period in the plot is the time for building up necessary
background and information for the central conflict in a play. It often comes soon
after the opening scene in a tragedy. The appearance of the ghost in Hamlet exposes
 the hidden secrets to the Prince of Denmark that results in the tragic actions that
follow.

h. Action sequence in a play -The Rising action begins after the opening scene and
Exposition. It develops the conflict that leads to the Climax. The Climax is a turning
point that is followed by the crisis resulting in the change of fortune of the
protagonist. Catastrophe is often applied to tragedy only. A common term for both
comedy and tragedy are Resolution or Denouement. It is a situation where the conflict
is settled, the mystery is solved or misunderstanding is cleared away.

2. Character

• Characters are persons represented in a dramatic work.. A character is assessed by the

viewer through the dialogue and action. A character can be stable or changing in a
play. Prospero in The Tempest, for example, undergoes major changes through the
course of action.
• Aristotle considers character as the second most important element in a tragedy just
after Plot. According to Poetics, a character should have four main qualities. Primarily
a character should be good. Second aim is propriety.Thirdly, a character should be
true to life. The fourth point is consistency. The person of a given character should
speak and act in a given way.

3. Thought

• The psychology behind the character’s action.

• Aristotle has expressed his views regarding Thought more clearly in Rhetoric than in
Poetics. Thought of a character is revealed either through his actions or through
dialogue; it would be difficult to treat thought as a separate entity in a drama. Yet the
concept of thought can be estimated as the mental transactions of the characters that
are manifested in the forms of actions and speech in a drama.

4. Diction

• Aristotle considers Diction as an essential component of tragedies. He has given a

detailed concept of diction in Poetics. According to Poetics, diction includes the
following: phoneme, syllable, connective, noun, verb, conjunction, inflection and
utterance. He further divides phonemes into vowels, continuants and mutes. The most
important quality of diction is clarity, according to Aristotle. He feels there must be a
balance between clarity and exotic words in the diction. Thus he feels the diction
should be clear but different from the ordinary speech.
• Diction in drama in the contemporary context can be defined as the particular
language employed by the playwright to script the dialogue in a play. It gives
emphasis to the choice of vocabulary, style and the tone of language employed in a
play.
5. Song

• Song has been one of the fundamental elements of ancient drama. The very concept of
drama is closely associated with singing. In ancient Greece, dramas were enacted in
connection with the festivals. The core element of the festivals was revelry- drunken
men dressed in goatskin sang in choruses to imitate the capering of goats. It was also
done to honour Dionysius, the god of fertility and wine making.

6. Spectacle

• Spectacle refers to the visual elements of a drama. It could also refer to the special or
surprising scenes introduced in the ancient drama to amuse the spectators. The visual
elements in a play consist of costumes, stage properties and special visual effects. The
costume, makeup and other stage properties should suit the character and the scene.
Aristotle calls spectacle 'least artistic' element of a tragedy and 'least connected to the
work of the playwright'.

Three Unities

• A more elaborate convention of three unities was formulated by the French classicists
based on the fundamental concept in Poetics. The Three Unities require a play to have
a single action represented as occurring in a single place and within the course of a
day. These principles were - unity of action, unity of place and unity of time.
• The concept of three unities was held in high esteem all through the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries in France and Italy.
• The unity of action: a play should have one main action that it follows, with no or few
subplots. The unity of place: a play should cover a single physical space and should
not attempt to compress geography, nor should the stage represent more than one
place. The unity of time: the action in a play should take place over no more than 24
hours

Tragic Hero
• The Tragic Hero is the protagonist or chief character in a Tragedy. Aristotle stipulates
certain specific attributes to a tragic hero. He should be a lofty character so that he
should not be identified as a common man by the spectators. Yet he flawless either.
He is characterised by his Tragic Flaw, the error in judgement or hamartia.
commonest form of hamartia is hubris or pride that often leads to the downfall of the
hero as we see in King Lear. It is this tragic flow of excessive pride or overmuch self
confidence that prompts the protagonist to neglect a divine warning or violate a moral
law.
• The downfall or misery of the hero evokes our pity as he is not a bad or evil
personality and his tragedy is disproportionate to his flaw. The tragedy evokes fear in
us as such flawed judgments or error in character is often part of every one of us.
 Aristotle speaks of the tragic plot as something that evokes tragic pity and fear in the
auditor through complication to a catastrophe. It involves angnorisis, a discovery of
facts hitherto unknown to the hero. It results in peripetein, or a reversal of fortune
from happiness to sorrow or downfall.

Simple and Complex Plot

• Aristotle classifies the plots broadly into two- Simple and Complex plots. A Simple
plot is one in which there is only a single and continuous action. Simple plots do not
have Peripeteia and Anagnorisis- the Reversal of fortune and the Recognition.
• A complex plot is one in which either the Reversal or the Recognition or both take
place. Reversal of situation is where the actions in the drama take a completely
opposite direction contrary to our expectations or speculations. Thus in Oedipus, the
messenger comes to cheer Oedipus and free him from his alarms about his mother,
but by revealing who he is, he produces the opposite effect.

Chorus

• Chorus was part of rituals in ancient Greece. It was a group of people, who wore
masks and chanted verses while dancing at religious festivals. Chorus became a part
of the classical Greek tragedies. They served mainly as commentators on actions in
the dramas. They often expressed traditional, moral, religious and social attitudes.
• Frederic Nietzsche makes some remarkable speculations regarding the Chorus in his
book The Birth of Tragedy (1872). He says that there were only the choruses on stage
at the beginning days of Greek tragedies.
• Chorus was later introduced to the Roman plays by writers like Seneca. Gorboduc, the
British play written in the sixteenth century has a chorus. It was probably imitated
from the Senecan tradition by Norton and Sackville, the playwrights.

History of Drama
Greek Theatre and Drama

• The term drama comes from a Greek word meaning 'actors'. The term theatre is
derived from the Greek word Theatron or 'seeing place'. Drama could be defined as
printed text of the play while theatre is the performance text.
• The origin of drama happened in Greece - the city state of Athens. Individual poets
read out their written works. Soon people packed to listen to them and this sets the
ball rolling, longer scripts followed and roles were handpicked. These became full-
fledged shows with writers, directors and a cast of actors.
 • Actually, drama is originated in Greece to propitiate Dionysus, the God of wine. The
blessings of Dionysus were invoked for a rich harvest. The music played in his
honour was known as Tragos or goat song. The actors and singers wore goat skins.
The group of singers was known as chorus. The stage was called orchestra; the people
listening to the music were called the audience. The audience sat in the auditorium to
watch and listen to the show.
• Until 530 BC, these festivals did not have actors. It was Thespis who introduced the
first actor in 530 BC. He is regarded as one of the founding fathers of drama or the
"Father of Tragedy”. Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides formed the three pillars of
Greek theatre.
• The ancient Greek theatre characterized three genres tragedy, comedy and satire. All
the early plays were tragedies. The term Greek tragedy thus became a cultural label
still in vogue. As said earlier Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides formed the trilogy
of tragedy. Their dramatic genius went a long way to enrich the Greek theatre and to
give a cult status to classical Greek tragedy.
• Oedipus by Sophocles is a typical example for classical Greek tragedy. It is based on
the tragic story of king Oedipus.

Medieval Drama is divided into four portions:

1) Mystery Plays

2) Miracle Plays

3) Morality Plays

4)Interlude

Miracle Play

• -The plays which are related to the lives of the saints are called Miracle plays .
• -These plays are written in verse forms . The author remained still unknown.
• -These plays were popular in England from the 12th to the 16th century. Even earlier
than this ,Miracle plays were performed in France
• Miracle play, also called Saint's Play, is one of three principal kinds of vernacular
drama of the European Middle Ages (along with the mystery play and miracle play).
A miracle play presents a real or fictitious description of the life, miracles, or
martyrdom of a saint. By the 13th century they had become vernacularized and
packed with un ecclesiastical elements. They had been separated from church services
and were performed at public festivals. Almost all surviving miracle plays concern
either the Virgin Mary or St. Nicholas, the 4th-century bishop of Myra in Asia Minor.
 Mystery Play

• The mystery plays, usually representing biblical subjects, developed from plays
presented in Latin by churchmen on church premises and depicted such subjects as
the Creation, Adam and Eve, the murder of Abel, and the Last Judgment.
• Morality plays, also called morality, are allegorical drama popular in Europe
especially during the 15th and 16th centuries, in which the characters personify moral
qualities (such as charity or vice) or abstractions (as death or youth) and in which
moral lessons are taught.
• Together with the mystery play and the miracle play, the morality play is one of the
three main types of vernacular drama produced during the Middle Ages.
• -which involves a direct conflict between right and wrong or good and evil and from
which a moral lesson may be drawn.
• -Most morality plays have a protagonist who represents either humanity as a whole
(Everyman) or an entire social class (as in Magnificence). -Antagonists and
supporting characters are not individuals, per se, but rather personifications of abstract
virtues or vices, especially the seven deadly sins.

The University Wits

• The drama before Shakespeare, found its full flowering with the dramatists called the
'University Wits'. These dramatists were well-educated scholars. They wrote in the
closing years of the 16’Th century. This name of University Wits was given them
because they were nearly all educated at Oxford or Cambridge University. Wit was
the synonym for scholar.
• The University wits were the scholars who were fostered under the atmosphere of
either Oxford or Cambridge. They were the most noticeable of pioneer English
dramatists who wrote during the last 15 years of the sixteenth century. Quality and
diversity in themes marked their plays.
• The university wits included Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, and Thomas Nash
(all Cambridge graduates). Also in the list were Thomas lodge and George Peele of
oxford and Thomas Kyd who was not a university graduate. Together, they could well
be considered the fore-runners of Shakespeare.
• All the University Wits have several features in common. All of them were actively
associated with the theatre. They were usually actors as well as dramatists. They
understood the requirements of the stage and felt the pulse of the audience. They often
worked in collaboration with each other. With these dramatists English drama
reached the highest point of glory. In many ways they developed English drama.
• The most important playwright of the group who had been a major influence on
Shakespeare was, undoubtedly, Marlowe. Doctor Faustus, The Jew of Malta and
Edward II are great examples of perfected dramatic art of Marlowe. Marlowe's major
achievement was in the usage of blank verse which later was perfected and
popularised by Shakespeare.
 • Shakespeare did not belong to the university wits' group. His place was among the
rival group of actor playwrights. Drama, for him, was not a peg on which to hang
splendid speeches. Rather, he considered it an organic whole where characters and
plot developed each other. Among Shakespeare's contemporaries, the names of Ben
Jonson, Chapman, Marston and Dekker need special mention. Ben Jonson's
masterpiece, Every Man in His Humour was a play noted for its characters and their
treatment.

Theatre in the Age of Shakespeare

• The playhouse with which tradition connects Shakespeare was called 'The Theatre'. It
was built by an actor-manager James Burbage in 1597. In 1598, it was pulled down
and rebuilt as the Globe. Most of Shakespeare's works were performed here.
• During Shakespeare's time, plays were written for the masses. Queen Elizabeth,
unlike her predecessors, loved theatre and the process of acting. She was a great
patron of art and naturally, her patronage paved the way for the popularity of the
theatre.
• The popular theatres emerged outside the city walls. Shakespeare's audience was not
a disciplined lot. They booed, cheered, walked around, ate and drank during the
staging of plays.
• The Elizabethan stage formed part of a circular yard, open to the sky surrounded by 3
tiers of galleries. Painted scenery was totally absent. A few screens gave actors their
opportunities of exit and entrance. At the back of the stage was erected a permanent
wooden balcony about nine feet above the ground. The balcony scene of Romeo and
Juliet was enacted here.
• Actors wore rich costumes and little attention was paid to chronological or national.
accuracy. The cost of admission was small even for the reserved seats. Usually, the
play started in broad daylight in the afternoon and continued for 2 hours or so.
• Female characters were taken by boys or young men. Women did not appear on stage
till after Restoration. Directness and vivacity were the twin attributes of
Shakespearean theatre.

Restoration and Eighteenth Century Drama

• The term “restoration” in restoration drama refers to the return of the monarchy to
England after something more than a decade of Puritan rule.
• The period of Restoration owes its name from the Restoration of the Stuart dynasty to
the English throne in 1660. Major changes in the cultural, art and literary fields were
brought about by this political act.
• The puritan rulers had made life difficult for writers and actors. Performances were
given in secrecy. Indulging in art and literature was considered a sin by the puritan
rulers. In stark contrast to this, the restoration of Charles II gave a boost to the theatre.
 in England. The closed playhouses were given a fresh lease of life. Technology was to
be used both structurally and visually on the stage.
• With the advent of Restoration, women made their appearance on stage. A distinctive
type of comedy called comedy of manners was developed by John Dryden It was also
called Restoration comedy. Excellent examples are William Congreve's 'The Way of
the World' and William Wycherley's 'The Country Wife'. On the other hand, a form of
drama also called heroic tragedy was developed by the restoration dramatists.
Dryden's All for Love is typical of this genre.

Sentimental Comedy
• Sentimental comedy, also termed the drama of sensibility is a dramatic genre of the
18th century. These plays reflected or represented middle class life where the
protagonists overcome moral trials and come out triumphantly. Though labelled as
comedy, these plays aimed at producing tears and not laughter.
• The virtues of private life are exhibited in sentimental comedy. In the place of
humour, there is abundance of sentiment and feeling. Needless to say, the audience
wore a gloomy look as they watched these plays.
• In short, the comic or satiric of the Restoration Drama was substituted by an abundant
show of moral sentiments. Richard Steele's The Conscious Lovers (1722) and Richard
Cumberland's The West Indian (1771) present monumental heroes and heroines of the
middle class suffering tribulations which aim at evoking pleasurable tears from the
audience. These play coexisted with conventional comedies like Goldsmith's She
Stoops to Conquer (1773) and Sheridan's The Rivals (1775) until the Sentimental
genre waned in the 19th century.

Anti-Sentimental Comedy
• It is a reaction against sentimental comedy. The pioneer of Anti-Sentimental comedy
is Oliver Goldsmith. Goldsmith, in his 'Comparison between Sentimental and
Laughing Comedy', criticised the Sentimental comedy for creating situations which
evoke tears in the place of laughter.
• Oliver Goldsmith writes that the true function of a comedy was to give a humorous
exhibition of the follies and vices of men and women and to rectify them by exciting
laughter. Goldsmith opposed sentimental comedy because in place of laughter and
humour, it provided tears and distressing situations, pathetic lovers, serious heroines
and honest servants.
• He argued that sentimental comedy was more like tragedy than a comedy. If comedy
was to trespass upon tragedy where humour will have right to express itself. On two
occasions and with unequal success, Goldsmith tried to revive sincere laughter on
stage.
Comedy of manners
• Comedy of manners is a form of dramatic comedy that depicts and often satirizes the
manners and affectations of contemporary society. It is mainly a satirical comedy of
the Restoration period (1660–1700) that questions and comments upon the manners
and social norms of a greatly sophisticated, artificial society.
• the characters of the comedy of manners belong to the real life of the 18th century–to
the artificial, snobbish, vulgar English society. They are realistic, although they
belong to a much restricted social span.
• The comedy of manners of the restoration, again, deals with intellect and has little
emotion or impulsiveness. Instead of the emotional love of youth of the romantic
comedy, the Restoration comedy is packed with highly enjoyable repartees of wit and
the frank display of social depravity.
• the root of the Restoration comedy of manners might be traced in Dryden, the famous
makers of this comedy were to come much later. They included William Congreve,
George Etherege, William Wycherley, John Vanbrugh, and George Farquhar.
• Some of the most famous examples of comedy of manners are William Congreve’s
The Way of the World, William Wycherley’s The Country Wife, R.B.Sheridan’s The
Rivals, The School for Scandal, etc.

Drama of the Romantic Period

• The Romantic period in English literature begins with the Age of Sensibility (1705 or
alternately in 1789, the year of French revolution or in 1798, the year in which
Wordsworth and Coleridge published Lyrical ballads. It is a term applied to the lyrical
movements in European countries and America.
• The major writer-poets of this period, besides Wordsworth and Coleridge were Robert
Burns, William Blake, Byron, Shelley and Keats.
• The major lyric poets of this age tried their hand at writing plays. By 1780s, the
Sentimental plays were gradually transforming themselves into the most important
dramatic form of the early 19th century which was termed melodrama.
• The tragedies written by these poets met with little success. Coleridge's Osorio (1797)
was produced as Remorse at Drury Lane in 1813, Byron's Marino Faliero in 1821,
Wordsworth's The Borderers (1797), Otho the Great by John Keats (1819) and P. B
Shelley's The Cenci (1819) were not staged. The Cenci has a sustained narrative
tension which gives it a class of its own.
• The general Romantic tendency is to accord greater importance to character than to
action. Consequently, closet dramas are produced which are meant to be read rather
than staged.

Decadence
• The term Decadence describes a period of art or literature which, compared to the
excellence of a former age, is in decline. The Alexandrine period (300-30BC) and the
 period after the death of Augustus (AD14) have been described as periods of
decadence.
• In modern times, the term is used to refer to the Symbolist movement in French
autonomy of art was emphasized in the art for art's sake slogan.
• The word 'decadence' literally ' means falling away or decline. It became an aesthetic
term all throughout Europe by the end of the century. The poet Arthur Symons in his
essay, 'The Decadent Movement in Literature' described decadence as a new,
beautiful and interesting disease. In France, Baudelaire was considered the high priest
of decadence. According to its practitioners, art is totally opposed to nature.
• In England, the ideas of decadence are manifested in the writings of Swinburne,
beginning in the 1860s and by writers like Oscar Wilde, Arthur Symons, and Ernest
Dowson. In the search for 'unnatural' sensations, a number of English decadent writers
experimented with drugs.
• Wilde's novel, The Picture of Donan Gray is a typical example of decadent literature.
Although unrecognised, women also have contributed to the decadent style. The most
important of these voices was Michael Field, the pseudonym of two women writers
Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper who jointly wrote under the same name

Problem Play

• The problem play is a type of drama popularized by the Norwegian playwright Henrik
Ibsen. In a problem play, the situation faced by the protagonist is portrayed as a
typical situation that is representative of a contemporary social problem. For example,
the play Doll's House" explores the position of a woman in society through the
character of Nora.
• problem play, type of drama that developed in the 19th century to
deal with controversial social issues in a realistic manner, to expose
social ills, and to stimulate thought and discussion on the part of the
audience.
• The genre had its beginnings in the works of the well-known French writers like
Alexander Dumas. In England, Bernard Shaw brought the problem play to its
intellectual peak. In a specialized application, the term problem play was also used in
connection with some of Shakespeare's plays like Measure for Mensure which
explores the dark aspects of human nature.

Realism

• Realism in drama, as observed in the 19th century was a less extreme form of
naturalism. Henrik Ibsen is a key figure among the realist playwrights. Ibsen rejected
the concept of the well- made play and exaggerated theatricalism. Ibsen's influence
was noticeable on Shaw and Strindberg Theatrical realism aims at bringing texts and
performances closer to life.
 • Realism and naturalism are differentiated on the basis of the degree of choice the
characters have. While naturalism believes in the strength of natural forces over
internal decisions, realism is built on the freedom and power of the individual with
respect to their life choices.

Henrik Ibsen

• Henrik Johan Ibsen, popularly known as Ibsen is a major Norwegian playwright. He

is often referred to as "the father of realism" and is the second most influential
playwright of all times, after Shakespeare.
• He completely rewrote the rules of drama. While Europe was at the cusp of a
transformation political, social and literary, Ibsen played an important role in bringing
about revolutionary changes in drama. He challenged the age old romantic traditions
and introduced unconventional themes The moral values portrayed in his plays
became an eye opener for the contemporary society.
• The major works of Ibsen are A Doll's House, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, The Master
Builder Hedda Gabler. In Doll's House, Nora leaves her home, banging the door at the
face of the worn out values of society. She leaves behind her husband Torvald and
three children and sets out to educate herself on an array of issues. Nora gained an
iconic status and the play was hailed by many as a major statement in gender politics.

George Bernard Shaw

• Popularly known as Bernard Shaw, he was born in Dublin in 1856 and moved to
London where he established himself as a writer, orator and a socialist thinker. He
became a member of the Fabian society and continued to be an active propagator of
Fabian socialism. He used his plays as tools to discuss his ideas and politics.
• As a playwright, his first commercial success was “Arms and the Man”. In this play,
he portrayed the hollowness and hypocrisy of war politics. According to Shaw,
heroism in war is not a practical man's priority. Ibsen was a major influence in Shaw's
writings The first decade of twentieth century witnessed the rise of Shaw as a major
playwright.
• Shaw's early plays were appropriately titled as Plays pleasant and Unpleasant (1898).
One of his early plays, Mrs. Warren's Profession, criticised the hypocrisy of society,
Shaw's utter disregard of conventions is obvious in this play.
• His sparkling wit and a keen dialectic interest turn the stage into a forum of ideas
where one can witness the active clash between the outdated and modern. His
characters are ordinary people and the writer views them from an extraordinary
perspective. Pygmalion is an example. Shaw's masterpiece, St. Joan (1923), is a
revisiting of the valiant French maiden's story. Shaw recreates the story in his play
extending it from the middle ages to the present.
• Pygmation (1912) is witty with its interesting characters a phonetics teacher and an
ordinary flower girl. It is one of Shaw's most successful plays on stage with its
brilliant treatment of middle class morality and class distinctions. Shaw was awarded
 the Nobel Prize for literature in 1925. His complete works appeared in thirty-six
volumes between 1930 and 1950. His prefaces to his plays, some of them longer than
the plays themselves, are literary masterpieces.

Avantgarde (Experimental theatre)

• An important term used in the history of art and literature, the term has a military
origin which means " advance guard. When used in connection with literature. the
term denotes exploration, and innovation- a sort of path finding- something advanced
and ahead of its time. Avant garde theatre is experimental theatre where playwrights
experimented with revolutionary and non-traditional forms of theatre Experimental
theatre aims at changing the equation between the play on stage and its audience. An
interactive relationship with the audience is created in such theatrical genres like
theatre of the absurd, expressionistic theatre, etc.

Expressionism
• The term Expressionism refers to a movement in Germany in the early twentieth
century, in which a number of painters attempted at avoiding the expression of
external reality. They projected themselves and their personal vision of the world in
their art. Expressionism dominated the theatre for a period in the 1920s.
Expressionistic theatre was a reaction against realism and aimed to depict the inner
psychological realities. The origins of this are to be found in August Strindberg. The
major elements of expressionistic theatre are marked in Strindberg's The Dream Play.
• Expressionism reached its peak during the second decade of the twentieth century. Its
precursors in art were Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. The expressionistic mode
of painting was epitomized in Edvard Munch's lithograph, "The Cry" (1894) which
depicted a tense figure with distorted face uttering a cry of horror set in a bleak
background In literature, the precursors of Expressionism besides Strindberg were the
French poet Baudelaire, the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the German
philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche The central feature of Expressionism is a revolt
against the artistic and literary tradition of realism, both in subject and style.
• Drama was a prominent form of expressionist writing: Georg Kaiser and Ernst Toller
are the better known German playwrights who wrote in the expressionist mode. These
dramatists represented anonymous human types instead of individualised characters:
Plot was replaced by episodic rendering of intensely emotional states. Dialogues took
the form of exclamatory words and incoherent sentences. Characters also wore masks.
This mode of German drama influenced the American theatre. A typical example is
Emperor Jones by Eugene O'Neill.

Epic Theatre
• Epic theatre is a theatrical movement which arose in the early twentieth century and
was in vogue till the middle of the century. It was meant to be a new political theatre,
 a response to the political climate of the time Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was one of
its chief practitioners.
• The epic theatre was at break with the established dramatic conventions and style. It
aimed at appealing to the reasoning faculty of the spectator rather than to his feelings.
According to Brecht, a play must act like an alarm clock and not like a sleeping pill. It
must not put the reasoning faculty of the spectator to sleep. It must address the head
and not the heart.
• The epic theatre forces its audience to see the world as it is. Brecht loathed the theatre
of realism, his plays were didactic. They aimed at instructing the audience. The non
realistic techniques used by Brecht came to be known as the verfremdungseffekt, the
'alienation effect. lement of suspense, an integral part of the traditional theatre, was no
longer there.
• Though not propagandist, much epic drama depicted political ideals. Historicization
is also employed to draw connections from a historical event to a similar current event
(Mother Courage and her Children).
• Life of Galileo is another important play. Defamiliarization or making strange is also
employed in epic theatre. What is familiar and known is made fresh, new and strange
The techniques and devices by which a work of art is constructed are laid bare Thus,
the reader's or the spectator's attention is drawn to the artifice of the text

Theatre of the Angry Young Man

• The term Angry young Man was first used as the title of Leslie Paul's autobiography
published in 1951. The term was later used by the Royal Court Theatre's press officer
to promote John Osborne's 1956 play Look Back in Anger. The label became s catch-
phrase in Britain in the middle and late 1950s.
• “Look Back in Anger” became the mouthpiece of a disillusioned and discontented
young generation who consistently maintained an anti- establishment stand.
• Angry Young Men, various British novelists and playwrights who emerged in the
1950s and expressed scorn and disaffection with the established sociopolitical order
of their country. The Angry Young Men were a new breed of intellectuals who were
mostly of working class or of lower middle-class origin. Some had been educated at
the postwar red-brick universities at the state’s expense, though a few were
from Oxford. They shared an outspoken irreverence for the British class system, its
traditional network of pedigreed families, and the elitist Oxford
and Cambridge universities. The reforms of the post-war welfare state which failed to
satisfy their aspirations resulted in frustration and a raw anger frequently expressed in
their writings.
• John Osborne and Kingsley Amis are the important dramatist of the Angry Young
Man movement.Amis’s Lucky Jim is another typical play of this genre. Jimmy Porter
the protagonist of “Look Back Anger” described as an anti-hero. The play was staged
in 1956 and created tremendous stir.
• The portrayal of domestic realism everyday language instigated its critics to describe
the as kitchen- sink drama. The protagonist, Jimmy dissatisfied with job and finds it
 impossible to into society and its established norms. This is reflected frequent quarrels
with his wife. It is with excessive and disdainful humour that reacts social Much the
play centres round his attacks on the society. The frustration, revolt and anger
brewing him define his personality. Though he criticises the class throughout the play,
is unable to move stereotyped working class. Thus, he belongs neither here there. off
from his own class, Jimmy Porter reassurance in the old-fashioned pattern relationship
which seeks dominate women. The of the 1950s is portrayed as contradiction Jimmy's
criticism of the social ills and his bullying towards his wife In order to escape from
the situation, turns to drinks and commits adultery.
• The kitchen- sink drama also became popular the 1950s. denoted plays with working
class back- ground. works of Osborne and Arnold Wesker were One of Wesker's play
was titled The Kitchen.

Theatre of Absurd
• The term, Theatre of the Absurd was originally coined by Martin Esslin, who wrote
The Theatre of the Absurd in 1961. Martin Esslin in his work stated that the human
condition is essentially and ineradicably absurd and this condition can be adequately
represented only in works of literature that are themselves absurd.
• The movement emerged in France after the horrors of the Second World War as a
rebellion against the beliefs and values associated with the traditional culture and
literature.
• After the 1940s, there arose a tendency prominently expressed in the existential
writings of the French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus that man is an
isolated being cast into an alien universe. The universe possesses no inherent truth or
value and man moves from nothingness to nothingness, living an anguished and
absurd existence.
• In The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), Albert Camus observes "In a universe that is
suddenly deprived of illusions and of light, man feels a stranger. His is an
irremediable exile. This divorce between man and of his life, the actor and his setting,
truly constitutes the feeling of Absurdity"
• Eugene Ionesco, the famous French writer of absurd drama describes this condition
as a lost condition when man's actions become senseless, absurd and meaningless.
Chairs (1952) is his well-known play. Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) is another eminent
writer of this mode His masterpiece, Waiting for Godot, (1955), titled as a tragi
comedy in two acts, portrays the absurdity of life and helplessness of the individual in
a dramatic forms sans a realistic setting, logical reasoning and a coherent plot. The
main feeling of the audience is that of bafflement as they face a world on stage which
is devoid of any sort of logic with respect to events or human behaviour. Life
becomes nothing but absurd in this context of disjointedness and meaninglessness. In
Waiting for Godot, two tramps Vladimir and Estragon meet at a place where there is
just one tree. They are waiting for Godot who never comes. The two tramps spend
their time by playing word games.
 • The whole ambience of the play is totally bleak. It is both comic and terrifying at the
same time. Like all great writers, Beckett seems to see beyond time, to anticipate what
is to be. Estragon says: "Nothing happens, nobody comes nobody goes, it's awful!"
The play is absurd in a double sense- it's grotesquely comic and irrational. Also, it is a
parody of the conventions of traditional drama Harold Pinter's Birthday Party, Edward
Albee's Zoo Story are other examples of absurd drama.

Comedy of Menace

• Comedy of Menace is a term first used by David Campton as a subtitle to his four
short plays The Lunatic View (1957) .It is a kind of play where the laughter of the
audience is often followed by a feeling of some lurking danger.
• The characters of these plays (one or more of them) feel that they are threatened by
some frightening, unknown power or force or personality. There is an underlying
sense of violence throughout the play. The impending disaster or the threatening
menace is portrayed in a comic manner.
• Even in the midst of laughter on the stage, the audience smell danger but the whole
thing remains uncertain Consequently, a feeling of insecurity is produced throughout
the play. These feelings of fear and insecurity become a source of grim comedy.
• Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party (1958) is a typical comedy of menace. The play
mingles. comedy with the perception of danger that surrounds the whole play
Laughter is aroused but it is not innocent laughter or pure comedy, P'inter's The Dumb
Waiter (1960) is another example.
• In The Birthday Party, the setting is a sea-side boarding house. A Birthday party is
arranged here. Two strangers come unexpectedly to this scene and the birthday party
turns into a nightmare. The pinteresque features like ambiguous identition, confusion
of time and place and dark symbolism are obvious in the play What Pinter presevits is
a world when people seem to be locked inside themselves along a non communicative
line.

Theatre of Cruelty
• Theatre of cruelty is based on the theories of the French dramatist Antonin Artaud
(1896-1945) His work “The Theatre and its Double” prescribes theories for Theatre of
Cruelty. According to him, theatre must disturb or shock the spectator. His heart and
soul must be pierced.
• The theatre must be a portrayal of the repressed feelings of the individual, which have
been stored in his unconscious mind. The spectator, thus, must be able to view
himself as he really is.
• Theatre of cruelty is seen as a break from the traditional western theatre. Artaud
believed that civilisation had made humans into sick creatures due to their repressed
impulses. Civilisation, as it is does not permit the individual to bring out his basic
instincts and feelings. This instinctual energy. when brought out, makes him feel
liberated.
 • Gesture and scenery are more important than words and the director of the play is
kind of a maker of magic Spectacle, lighting and stage effects are exploited to the
maximum.
• Jean Genet. Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook etc. are some major playwrights influenced
by Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty.

Feminist Theatre
• The wider political theatre of the 1970s gave rise to feminist theatre. Following the
political and social activism of the times, women's theatres came up in the 70s and
80s.
• Michelene Wandor, Martha Boesing, Caryl Churchill and the Women's theatre group
in London are the early leaders. Carlyl Churchill's best known plays are Top Girls
(1982) and Serious Money (1987), a satire on the Thatcher years from history.
• Women will always play the role expected of them to perfection but they are denied
opportunities and are seen as inferior to men. But a desire to move on despite the
challenges is very strongly depicted in these plays. Thus, these plays articulated not
only a sense of the past but also a sense of how the existing social order could be
reconstructed in favour of women.
• The women's movements all round the world have resulted in the growth of feminist
theatre which, consequently, has turned into a global genre. One of the earliest
feminist theatres in England is the Sphinx Theatre. The oldest theatre group in the
United States is Spiderwoman Theatre (1976) and in Canada it is the Nightwood
Theatre (1979). In India, the Feminist Theatre took the form of Street Theatre which
became popular in the 70s and 80s.
• Feminist theatre, by its very nature, defies definition because it is about breaking
boundaries and experimentation.
• Feminist theatre, since its outset, has faced internal and external challenges. The goals
and methods of third wave feminism were different from that of the second wave.
This too posed a challenge for the existing feminist theatre. The goals of feminist
theatre continue to be extreme, including exploration of social injustices and
inequalities.
• Today, gender privilege and bias continue to be both the subject and the challenge for
the Feminist theatre. The theory of Feminist theatre identified ways to disrupt male
gaze and to avoid objectifying women.
• The female characters became subjects rather than objects. The female point of view
was made visible to the audience when women characters acted and refused to be
acted upon.
• The content of the Feminist theatre focuses on the following -Examining sex and
gender roles, often reversing or mocking them, telling the hitherto ignored stories of
influential historical figures, telling the unjust stories of women who are oppressed
and critiquing those systems of power which oppress women. The form of Feminist
theatre. from plot structures to casting and rehearsal process challenges the accepted
norms of the male dominated theatre.
Street Theatre
• Street theatre is a theatrical performance in outdoor public spaces without a specific
paying audience. Street corners, college and university campuses, shopping centres
and many such public spaces are the venues of street theatre.
• Usually, a comparatively large number of people assemble to watch these plays. The
actors range from buskers (Street musicians) to organised theatre companies which
wish to experiment with performance, form or propagation.
• Street theatre is used as a vehicle for providing information on important issues like
health and other social issues and also for conveying messages to the public. Political
propaganda is one of the main agendas of street theatre. Simple costumes dance,
mime, music loud voices are all features of street theatre.
• During the twentieth century, political and community based street performance
companies expanded the nature and scope of Street Theatre. Social and political
activists began to choose Street theatre as their favourite and most effective medium
of propagating these ideas.
• Because it directly engages the public, its influence is immediate and wide-reaching.
One popular form of Street theatre developed in the 21st century is Flash Mob. A
Flash Mob is where a group of people assemble all of a sudden in a street or a public
place and perform a synchronised or unusual or seemingly pointless act in a short
time.
• The Flash Mob is widely used as a means of propaganda by political and social
activists. Song and dance comprise the main elements of Flash Mob.
• In India, one of the most prominent names associated with Street Theatre is Safdar
Hashmi, the founder of Jana Natya Manch. During the staging of a street play. he was
brutally attacked and murdered by some hooligans His work was continued by his
family and followers.

Ritual Theatre
• Ritual theatre is the enactment of a myth or an archetypal story. It aims at resolving an
issue, dealing with a difficult life experience, or as a means of healing. It also seeks to
restore depleted energies.
• A ritual theatre is open to all anybody can participate. It does not require special skills
as actors. Wholehearted willingness to participate is what is needed. Through the
enactment of archetypal stories, the participants are involuntarily enabled to express
the feelings stored in their collective unconscious. This facilitates the healing of
psyche and soul which is akin to the ritual healing ceremonies of ancient times.
• All human societies have rituals. the rites of worship, all religious rites, ceremonies
like inauguration, coronation, marriage, funeral all come under rituals. Even saying
hello and handshake are rituals. All these rituals are part of a culture Ritual becomes a
source of theatre.
• Music, dance, spectacle, costumes, speech are all part of a ritual theatre. Aristotle, in
his Poetics, states that theatre has its roots in the pagan rituals of Greece. Any myth
 could be its subject- for example, the fight between a God and monster or the
wanderings of a prince in the underworld were themes of ritual theatre Tribal societies
have their myths and rituals and their enactment.

Poor Theatre
• The Polish director, Jerzy Grotowski, in his renowned work, “Towards a Poor
Theatre”(1968) formulated the ideas of Poor Theatre. It was he who coined the term
poor theatre. It is a performance style with minimum stage properties or props to
attain the maximum effect.
• The absence of lavish costumes and elaborate sets mark the poor theatre. Grotowsky
believed that theatre cannot compete with either films or television in terms of
technology. Hence, he stood for poor theatre. The skill, especially physical skill of the
actor is most important in Poor Theatre. Grotowski, in his theoretical formulations of
his theatre was influenced by Brecht, and Stanislavsky. He used non- traditional
spaces like buildings and rooms for staging his plays. The audience was placed on
many sides of action or even amidst the action. Actor-training was recommended. The
period between 1959 and 1970 was the phase of Poor Theatre.
• Grotowski's Theatre was an intense confrontation with the audience. The audience
was limited to fewer than 60. The actors go through the most rigorous physical
training and a rigid discipline is maintained. The focus was the unadorned actor.
Grotowski's productions included adaptations of the 17th century Spanish playwright
Pedre Calderon's ‘The Constant and the early 20th century Polish writer Stanislaw
Wyspianski's ‘Acropolis’

Radio Drama
• Radio drama is a dramatised, acoustic performance broadcast on radio or published on
audio media like tapes. There is absolutely no visual component. Radio drama is
purely dialogue, music and sound effects. The listeners imagine the characters,
situations and the ambience of the play by listening to the dialogues.
• Radio Drama, developed in the early 1920s, achieved wide spread popularity. It was
an important source of popular entertainment in the 1940s. In October 1938, Orson
Welles and his Mercury Theatre produced the play War of the Worlds and it became
the most famous radio play of all times. But, with the advent of television, the radio
drama lost its popularity.
 Module 2 : Classical Drama
Othello – William Shakespeare
• Othello, in full Othello, the Moor of Venice, tragedy in five acts by William
Shakespeare, written in 1603–04 and published in 1622
• The Tragedy of Othello, Moor of Venice, 1st performance around 1604
• Often known as “Tragedy of Character"
• Coleridge said: lago had 'motiveless malignity' (lago had no motive, only hatred).

Characters:

1. Othello: African General in Venetian Army.

2. Desdemona: Othello's wife and Brabantio's Daughter.

3. lago: Othello's trusted but jealous junior officer/ensign.

4. Emilia: lago's wife and Desdemona's Maidservant.

5. Cassio: Othello's loyal Captain/Lieutenant.

6. Bianca: Cassio's lover.

7. Brabantio: Venetian Senator & Desdemona's father

8. Roderigo: A wealthy Venetian, lago's friend. He is in love with Desdemona.

9. Montano: The former Governor.

10. Gratiano: Brabantio's brother.

11. Lodovico: Brabantio's Kinsman.

12. Duke of Venice.

Act 1

• Roderigo is upset because of Othello and Desdemona's secret marriage as he is in love

with Desdemona. lago hates Othello because Othello had promoted a much younger
man, Cassio. lago plans to exploit Othello. He provokes Roderigo to tell Brabantio
about Desdemona's elopement.
• Brabantio confronts Othello and takes the case to the Duke, where he accuses Othello
of seducing Desdemona by witchcraft. Othello explains to the Duke that Desdemona
got enamoured to him because of the compelling stories he told her about his life
before Venice.
• The Senate is satisfied when Desdemona confirms that she loves Othello.
• Before leaving, Brabantio says that Desdemona will betray Othello one day.
 • The Duke orders Othello to leave Venice for the purpose of commanding the
Venetian Army against the invading Turks on the island of Cyprus.

Act 2

• When Othello reaches Cyprus, he learns that the Turkish Army got destroyed in the
storm. Othello orders a celebration and leaves to spend time with Desdemona.
• lago gets Cassio drunk.
• Cassio gets disorderly and wounds Montano.
• Othello enters the party and blames Cassio for the disturbance. Othello strips Cassio
of his rank.
• lago persuades Cassio to ask Desdemona to convince Othello to reinstate him. lago
organizes the meeting between Cassio and Desdemona at Othello's house.
• Othello watches Cassio leave in haste. Desdemona pleads Othello to forgive Cassio
and give him his rank back.
• lago persuades Othello to be suspicious of Cassio and Desdemona.
• When Desdemona accidentally drops her handkerchief, Emilia finds it and gives it to
lago, unaware of what he plans to do with it.
• Othello gets manipulated and asks lago for some proof about Desdemona's
unfaithfulness. lago says that Desdemona has given her handkerchief to Cassio.
• lago plants Desdemona's handkerchief in Cassio's lodging. lago creates many fake and
manipulative scenes to convince Othello that Cassio and Desdemona are having an
affair.
• Enraged and hurt, Othello resolves to kill his wife and tells lago to kill Cassio. lago
convinces Roderigo to kill Cassio.

Act 5

• Roderigo attacks Cassio on the street. lago comes from behind and cuts Cassio's leg.
• Desdemona claims to be innocent and begs Othello to let her live a little longer but
Othello smothers her with a pillow. Emilia calls for help. Montano and Gratiano
arrive with lago.
• When Othello mentions the handkerchief as proof of Desdemona's unfaithfulness,
Emilia realizes what lago has done. She exposes lago. lago stabs Emilia.
• Othello, realizing Desdemona's innocence, wounds lago and then commits suicide due
to extreme guilt and pain.
• Lodovico appoints Cassio as Othello's successor and tells Cassio to punish lago.

Othello as a Revenge Play

• Othello is an example of the style of Elizabethan revenge tragedy popular in

Shakespeare’s day after Thomas Kidd wrote ‘The Spanish Tragedy,’ in 1587. In such
plays, usually one or more characters are exacting revenge.
 • Revenge tragedy was very popular during the Elizabethan and Jacobean period. An
early example is Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy; probably the most famous
example is Shakespeare's Hamlet
• Othello is the story of a noble military general who has enjoyed many success in the
battlefield. His tragic flaw (hamartia) that brings his downfall are Jealousy, Poor
Judgment and Thoughtless Action. Due to his outsider status, Othello has self-doubts,
insecurities and a low self-esteem. This is the reason why lago could manipulate him.
• The play is about lago's Revenge against both Othello and Cassio. lago's manipulation
and lies motivate Othello and Roderigo to pursue vengeance. lago is a malcontent and
a skilled manipulator. lago's thirst for Revenge is the main cause for Destruction in
the play.
• Only after killing Desdemona, Othello realizes he trusted the wrong person all this
while. The claustrophobic ending of the Play in the bedroom where Othello kills
himself after smothering his innocent wife makes Othello a Great Tragedy.

Character Analysis Othello

• Othello is a combination of greatness and weakness, in his own words "an honourable
murderer" (V.2, 295). He is a general in the Venetian defence forces, and, although a
foreigner from Africa, he has won this post by excellence in the field of war. He has
courage, intelligence, the skill of command, and the respect of his troops. When the
colony of Cyprus is threatened by the enemy, the Duke and Senate turn to "valiant"
Othello to lead the defence.
• Othello is an outsider who is intelligent and confident in military matters but socially
insecure. He leads an intense life, swinging between triumph and dread. He is
different from those around him, due to his origins and his life history, but he shares
their religion, values, and patriotism to Venice.
• More importantly, he is visibly different due to the colour of his skin, so he lives
constantly among, but separated from, other people. Whenever they look at his black
face, however brilliant a general he is, he knows the others are thinking "Yes, but he
is not really one of us." Shakespeare presents this fact in the dialogue and also in the
staging of the play: Othello's is a black face among a sea of white faces, and he is
constantly referred to as "The Moor," a representative African.
• Othello tells his life story to Desdemona, and she sees him through his words. On the
field of battle Othello is skilled and triumphant; in the drawing room he is reluctant
until Desdemona takes the lead and encourages him to tell his life story. It is
Desdemona, as well as Othello, who turns the secret marriage into a social success
with her skillfully worded defense.
• Othello feels that his marriage is at the pinnacle of his life
• Desdemona is the angel who has rescued Othello with her love.
• Iago finds it easy to drive Othello to jealousy and think that Desdemona loves another
man because he already feels that her love for him is too good to be true. Iago has
only to push Othello to the belief that he has been betrayed, and Othello does the rest,
judging, condemning, and executing Desdemona.
• Fate is cruel to Othello, like the cruel fate of ancient Greek tragedies. Like the Greek
heroes, Othello can confront this fate only with the best of his humanity. In his final
speeches, Othello brings again a flash of his former greatness: his military glory, his
 loyalty to Venice, the intensity of his love, and his terrible realization that, by killing
Desdemona, he has destroyed the best in himself. No man has full control over his
life, but a man can judge himself and perform the execution and die with his love.

Character Analysis Desdemona

• Desdemona is a lady of spirit and intelligence. Desdemona is the most direct and
honest speaker in the play. Her speeches are not as lengthy as those of the men, but
with Desdemona, every word counts.
• For Desdemona, Othello is the hero of many exciting and dangerous adventures, who
also has the appeal of the orphan child who needs love. Add to this the fact that he is
now an honoured and powerful man in her country, and what young noble woman
would not find him attractive? As the Duke says, "I think this tale would win my
daughter too" (I.3, 171).
• In Cyprus, in charge of her own household, Desdemona continues to fulfil her duties,
receiving petitioners as the commander's wife and being hostess at official receptions.
• Her marriage has brought her position and happiness, so much so that she finds it
unbearable to think that her husband has turned against her. This numbness lasts until
she sees that he actually intends to kill her; then she puts up a brave and spirited
defense, insisting on her innocence. In despair at losing his love, she still defends him
from the consequences of his actions, but he is past seeing what is clear to her and to
Shakespeare's audience: that she has committed herself wholly to loving him; without
his love, she cannot live.

Module 3: World Plays

The Bear – Anton Chekhov

Characters

• Elena Ivanovna Popova, a landowning little widow, with dimples on her cheeks, her
husband has died
• Grigory Stepanovitch Smirnov, a middle-aged landowner
• Luka, Popova's aged footman

Context and Setting

• This short play take place on a country estate in 19th century Russia. The main
characters are part of the privileged land-owning class. Gender roles are traditional
and that is part of the reason a battle of the sexes ensues.

About the Play

• Anton Chekhov is the most eminent Russian playwright who is universally regarded
as the greatest Russian storyteller and dramatist of modern times. "The Boor" is one
 of his highly cherished comic works. The play is about a desperate young widow
named Elena Ivanovna Popova.
• Her husband had been unfaithful to her and she knew it, but as a kind of poetic
revenge she has vowed to live in seclusion for the rest of her life. We learn the true
motive of her vow through a brief soliloquy. This one-act play is written with the
purpose of exposing the hypocrisy, pretension, falsity and artificiality of the feudal
class of his country.
• .

Summary

• Mrs. Popov was a widow grieving a lot because of her husband death. She had been
imprisoning herself for about seven months after her husband death and receiving no
one. Then suddenly a man, Mr. Smirnov, came asking for money that her husband had
loaned and he needed the money very much. But Mrs. Popov couldn't pay at that day;
she could pay the following two days. That made them, Mrs. Popov and Mr. Smirnov,
had a confrontation and then insulted each other. Then they changed the conversation
about their own problem in their insulting, about a faithful of a man or a woman. They
started to be angry then she took guns, pistols, they had a duel. But they didn't fight,
because he told her that he like her. That was hard to believe. And the story ended in
contrasting point Mr. Smirnov fell in love with Mrs. Popov.

Analysis

• In The Bear, a widow, who mourns for her husband seven months after his death, is
approached by one of his creditors, a man in dire financial circumstances who
desperately requires the money that the widow's husband owed him. The exchange
between the widow and the creditor quickly progresses from polite to explosive, and
the creditor, who expresses his negative opinion of women in general, is transformed
by the spirit with which the widow argues with him. Yet the two agree to duel, and
the widow's willingness to meet this challenge compels the creditor to profess his love
for her.
• The play ends with the pair embracing. Despite Chekhov's disparaging remarks about
The Bear, it is known from his letters that he took the composition of such plays as
seriously as he viewed the writing of his fiction and lengthier dramas.
• This play is a farce. It is a humorous play that typically involves ridiculous situations,
stereotypes, exaggerated behaviour and physical comedy. The duel, for example,
illustrates all four of these elements. It is ridiculous and exaggerated the two will fight
to the death here, Mrs. Popov asks Smirnov to show her how to use the pistol, which
reveals women to be stereotypically non-violent and the duel itself involves physical
comedy.

Themes

• The Bear's comedy derives from the characters' lack of self-knowledge. The widow
Popova fancies herself inconsolably bereaved, while Smirnov considers himself a
misogynist. They are both ludicrous pretending to be more than they actually are. The
 central theme in The Bear is the prevailing nature of happiness and its victory over
grief. Other themes include joy and new beginnings.
• We have a theme battle of the sexes. The conflict between Smirnov and Mrs. Popov
reveals stereotypes about both men and women. Smirnov claims women are stupid
and Mrs. Popov claims men are unfaithful.
• The farce in this play lies in the way that extremes of emotion so quickly shift to
other, opposite extremes, and so-called rational human beings are shown to be subject
to their tempestuous emotions, which have much more control over their lives than
reason. While both Smirnov and Mrs. Popov detest one another in the beginning of
the play, opposites attract in this case and they fall in love. This is the theme of this
masterful play.
• Although the play is full of silliness and slapstick, there is a serious theme here.
Chekhov is reminding us that life is for living. When Elena finally lets Smirnov in,
she comes to life. She admits that the husband she is being so faithful to was not even
faithful to her. He left her nothing, not even the money, because the money was hers!

Title of the play

• The title of the play is The Bear (Boor). There are many meanings of bear in English.
On surface bear means tolerance, bear means naked but here is very outspoken
person, bear means uneducated, nonsense, out of head, bear means a man who has no
manners talk to before a woman and at a wild animal. In everyday language, we call
'bear' to a person who is rude, bad mannered and bad tempered. This title suggests the
attitude of Smirnov who is just like a bear. In everyday language, we call 'bear' to a
person who is rude, bad mannered and bad tempered. This title which name is The
Bear is totally justified the meaning of the play here. It suggests the attitude of
Smirnov who is just like a bear in his attitude.
• The title is ironic. The heroine of the play rebukes the hero and calls him, "a coarse
bear, a bourbon! a monster. But at the end she accepts his love and is driven into his
arms forgetting all her claims of love for her late husband and her proposed dislike for
SMIRNOV... the bear. Bear is thought to be a greedy, impertinent and totally
uncontrollable animal. So the bear may symbolically point towards the hero of the
play. SMIRNOV is ill mannered and violent but at the same time he is a very
passionate man. He is haughty and boorish. His attitude with POPOVA is very harsh
and impolite that reveals his bear like nature. So the title is meant to represent Mr.
SMIRNOV and his true nature.

The Zoo Story – Edward Albee

About the Author

• Edward Albee was born on March 12, 1928, in Virginia, United States and died on
September 16, New York, United States.
• American producer. dramatist and theatrical
• He was educated at Choate School and at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.
 • He was awarded by Tony Award for Best Play, Pulitzer Prize for Drama and more.
• Among Albee's early one-act plays, The Zoo Story (1959), The Sandbox (1959), and
The American Dream (1961) were the most successful and established him as an
intelligent critic of American values.
• The Zoo Story is his first play. It was written in 1958 and completed in just three
weeks. It is his masterpiece which begins with a conversation between two stranger,
Peter and Jerry and it ends with a death of Jerry.
• This is an absurd play and it is a satire on American life style.

Characterization

Peter

• He is well-educated and insightful. He is in his early forties. He has a wife, two

daughters, two cats, two parakeets, and a nice apartment He is studious, calm and
patient.
• His intention on this afternoon was to read quietly in Central Park.

Jerry

• A man in his late thirties, rough looking careless person. He is criticized by society so
he is lonely and unhappy with life. He is eager to share his opinions about life, love,
and isolation with Peter. He also seems jealous of Peter who has a 'full' life. He is an
absurd man who is fed up with life and wants to die.

Summary of the Play

• The entire play is set on a park bench in Central Park.

• One Sunday afternoon, Peter, an upper-middle class family man in his mid-forties, is
reading a book on a bench. Jerry, a messily dressed in his late thirties approaches.
• He says Peter that he is coming from the Central Park Zoo. Despite Peter's
unwillingness to chat, Jerry starts up a conversation. Jerry's rough personality quickly
begins to annoy Peter and he starts smoking.
• Jerry points out that Peter will likely get cancer from smoking and says that he is
feeble because he has cats instead of dogs.
• Jerry continues to ask Peter about his life, his job, and his interests. When Peter asks
about Jerry, he tells him about his miserable apartment in a flophouse on the Upper
West Side.
• He describes his unpleasant neighbours and two empty picture frames. When Peter
asks him about the picture frames, Jerry explains that he is completely alone in life.
His parents died when he was young. He had a romantic relationship with another boy
when he was a teenager.
• Jerry promises to tell Peter about his trip to the zoo, but he talks about his landlady, a
drunken woman who constantly tries to attract him towards her.
• The landlady had a dog. Jerry tried to befriend it but the dog responded only by
attacking him. So, he decided to murder the dog by feeding it a poisoned hamburger.
Although this sickened the dog, it eventually recovered and began to ignore him.
• Peter finds his story extremely upsetting and wonders why Jerry told it to him. Jerry
explains that he tries to befriend animals as an entrance to befriending other people.
 • Peter tries to leave the place, but Jerry prickles him to keep him from leaving. He then
tries to force Peter to move from the bench and punches him when he refuses.
Although Peter initially realizes that Jerry's behaviour is absurd, he gradually
becomes more possessive of the bench.
• Jerry pulls a knife and insists him to fight. This shocks Peter, who refuses to fight. As
a gesture of peace, Jerry gives the knife to Peter, who holds the knife out to protect
himself. Suddenly, Jerry charges Peter and stabs himself on the knife.
• Although he is initially hysterical, Jerry soon calms down and accepts his death. He
even thanks Peter and wipes Peter's fingerprints off the knife handle so that Peter will
not be accused of his murder. Peter takes his book and ran away from that place
before passers-by notice that Jerry is dying.

Themes of the play

• The play explores the themes of isolation, loneliness, miscommunication and social
disparity
• The impact of modernization in a society that makes people suffer from alienation in
life in a materialistic world.
• Absurdity versus reality, and wealth versus poverty.
• From this play, Albee wants to depict the panic situation of Americans during 20th
century through the character of Jerry.

The Man who Turned into a Stick Death) – Kobo Abe

• Kobo Abe was born on March 7, 1924, in Tokyo, Japan. Abe learned the magic of
storytelling as a teenager in Manchuria. Abe narrated the stories of Edgar Allan Poe,
first for himself, then for the entire class.Abe established his own theatre company,
the Kobo Abe Studio, in 1973. It was here, in 1976, that Abe staged the more well-
known version of his play, The Man Who Turned into a Stick.
• The Man Who Turned Into a Stick by Kobo Abe is a play that, despite its eccentric
features, nameless characters, and almost non-existent plot, has the power to not only
grab its audience but also to touch on issues that deserve attention even forty years
after it was published.
• In his book Modern Japanese Fiction and Its Traditions: An Introduction, J. Thomas
Rimer writes, "Abe has always been a trendy novelist." His early work, especially in
the theatre, demonstrates the stress influence of Marxism, which was so significant in
Japanese cultural history. Rimer also compares Abe's work to that of Franz Kafka,
claiming that it is "most conspicuously 'avant-garde," and that his "literary techniques
stress wit and satire." Rimer, writing in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, credits.
• The Man Who Turned into a Stick contains elements of existentialism and Theatre of
the Absurd. Kobo Abe asserts emphatically and consistently that no one can avoid the
human condition. The play forces various generations to become conscious of how
they live their lives, like a stick prodding the audience to question its beliefs and
values.
• The Man Who Turned into a Stick is a short one-act play published in 1957 by
Japanese writer and inventor Kōbō Abe. It is the last play in a trilogy,The first play
of the set, The Suitcase, was subtitled Birth; the second play, The Cliff of Time, was
subtitled Process; and the third, The Man Who Turned into a Stick was given the
subtitle Death.

Summary

• The Man Who Turned into a Stick is set entirely on a busy street beside a department
store, sometime in midsummer. At the beginning, two characters, Hippie Boy and
Hippie Girl, loiter outside the store, sniffing glue. Their bumbling is interrupted
when a stick falls from the sky.
• The stick is played by an actor, who also represents the man who was turned into
the stick. The cast is then joined by Man from Hell and Woman from Hell. Hippie
Boy marvels at how he almost was struck by the falling stick. Man from Hell and
Woman from Hell attribute his luck to fate.
• Hippie Boy takes the stick and starts to drum a beat. Hippie Girl then notices a
young boy on the roof and assumes that he threw the stick at them. Stick speaks to
the child, revealing himself as his father.
• Man from Hell and Woman from Hell interrogate Hippie Boy and Hippie Girl about
the origin and nature of the stick, doubting that they found it so innocently. The
hippies ask the people from Hell whether they are police officers. They reply that
they are not, and then ask them to hand over the stick. Hippie Boy, suspecting that
the man and woman are lying, accuses them of throwing the stick and orchestrating
a cover-up.
• The man and woman reassert that the stick is a person who transformed before
falling from the roof; they ask the kids to understand them. Hippie Boy and Hippie
Girl reply that they understand little because their age difference from the man and
woman divides their perceptions of reality. Hippie Girl notes that she and Hippie
Boy are, therefore, “alienated.”
• The man who transformed into a stick laments that it is so. The Man and Woman
from Hell and the Hippies debate the meaning of life. Man from Hell asks what
Hippie Boy thinks he will do with the stick; Hippie Boy replies that the very
question does not interest him because it is a relic of the past. Man from Hell uses
this logic against Hippie Boy, arguing that if it is so, he has no reason to withhold
the stick. Hippie Boy does not concede, frustrating the Man from Hell. He proclaims
that to want something, with the knowledge that it is insubstantial or meaningless, is
“bad for your health.” The Hippies refuse money for the stick and go on several
digressions.
• Then Woman from Hell announces that the boy from the roof is coming; he has
alerted the store employees about his father’s plight to no avail. The stick speaks
again, asking why fate made him turn into a stick.
• Hippie Boy drops the stick in fright, remarking that it looks uncannily similar to
him. He agrees to give the Man from Hell the stick for five dollars. Before he walks
offstage, he adds that he only sold it because he didn’t want to sell it, setting up a
“contradiction of circumstances.” Hippie Girl adds, supportively, that such is the
“generation gap.”
• Having obtained the stick, the Man and Woman from Hell deliberate about how they
will conduct their investigation of the man it once was. They contact Hell to debrief.
 Woman from Hell expresses sympathy for the stick and is scolded by the man. They
digress into another discussion on the nature of the stick. The man calls the stick the
“root and source of all tools,” making it faithful and capable. The woman remarks
that she has never before seen a man in the form of a stick; the man responds that it
is because they are so ubiquitous that they are routinely skipped over by those of
their profession.
• Man from Hell tells Woman from Hell to throw away the stick, but she hesitates,
wondering aloud whether it retains feelings. She suggests they give the stick to the boy so
he can grieve appropriately. The man replies that the boy and father are content as it is,
otherwise, the father would never have transformed.
• The two people from Hell walk off the stage to find another person who has turned into a
stick. Stick then delivers a monologue, calling into doubt their proclamations that he was
content. Man from Hell breaks the fourth wall, noting that the whole audience is full of
sticks. Woman from Hell tries to comfort Stick that he is not alone in his condition.
• Nevertheless, the play ends with the stick’s predicament unresolved and the man and
woman departing to mechanically repeat their roles.
• Alienation is a theme that runs through most of Abe's work. In The Man Who Turned
into a Stick, alienation is represented as Hippie Girl and Hippie Boy, the younger
generation. Their alienation is specifically expressed by Hippie Girl when she
declares that there is a generation gap between her and Hippie Boy and the man and
woman from hell. Hippie Girl also delivers the line: "We're alienated."

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