Contemporary Drama

CONTEMPORARY / MODERN DRAMA
Week 4
At the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

1. examine theatrical structures of contemporary drama; and
2. trace the changes and development of contemporary drama
TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITY

Group discussion and drama clip watching
The drama which had suffered a steep decline during the Victorian Age was
revived with great force at the beginning of the 20th century and the course of six decades
has witnessed many trends and currents in the 20th-century drama.
Modern Drama Characteristics
Realism
Realism is the most significant and outstanding quality of Modern English Drama.
The dramatists of the earlier years of the 20th century were interested in naturalism and
it was their endeavor (try) to deal with real problems of life in a realistic technique to their
plays.
It was Henrik Ibsen, the Norwegian dramatist who popularised realism in Modern
Drama. He dealt with the problems of real life in a realistic manner of his play. His example
was followed by Robertson Arthur Jones, Galsworthy and G. B. Shaw in their plays.
The modern drama has developed the Problem Play and there are many Modern
Dramatists who have written a number of problem plays in our times. They dealt with the
problems of marriage, justice, law, administration, and strife between capital and labor in
their dramas.
They used theatre as a means for bringing about reforms in the conditions of
society prevailing in their days. Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House is a good example of
a problem play.
The problem play was a new experiment in the form and technique and dispensed with
the conventional devices and expedients of theatre.
Play of Ideas
Modern Drama is essentially a drama of ideas rather than action. The stage is used
by dramatists to give expression to certain ideas which they want to spread in society.
Modern Drama dealing with the problems of life has become far more intelligent
than ever it was in the history of drama before the present age.
With the treatment of actual life, the drama became more and more a drama of
ideas, sometimes veiled in the main action, sometimes didactically act forth.
Romanticism
The earlier dramatists of the 20th century were Realists at the core, but the
passage of time brought in, a new trend in Modern Drama. Romanticism, which had been
very dear to Elizabethan Dramatists found its way in Modern Drama and it was mainly
due to Sir J.M. Barrie’s efforts that the new wave of Romanticism swept over Modern
Drama for some years of the 20th century. Barrie kept aloof from realities of life and made
excursions into the world of Romance.
Poetic Plays
T.S. Eliot was the main dramatist who gave importance to poetic plays and was
the realistic prose drama of the modern drama. Stephen Phillips, John Drink Water,
Yeats, etc were from those who wrote poetic plays.
History and Biographical Plays

Another trend, visible in the Modern English drama is in the direction of using
history and biography for dramatic technique. There are many beautiful historical and
biographical plays in modern dramatic literature.
Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra are historical plays of great importance. John Drink
Water’s Abraham Lincoln and Mary Stuart are also historical plays.
Comedy of Manners
There is a revival of the Comedy of Manners in modern dramatic literature. Oscar
Wild, Maugham, N. Coward, etc. have done much to revive the comedy of wit in our days.
The drama after the second has not exhibited a love for comedy and the social
conditions of the period after the war is not very favorable for the development of the
artificial comedy of the Restoration Age.
Impressionism
It is a movement that shows the effects of things and events on the mind of the
artist and the attempt of the artist to express his expressions. Impressionism constitutes
another important feature of modern drama.
In the impressionistic plays of W.B. Yeats, the main effort is in the direction of
recreating the experience of the artist and his impressions about reality rather than in
presenting reality as it is.
The impressionistic drama of the modern age seeks to suggest the impressions
on the artist rather than making an explicit statement about the objective characteristics
of things or objects.
Expressionism
It is a movement that tries to express the feelings and emotions of the people rather
than objects and events. Expressionism is another important feature of modern drama. It
marks an extreme reaction against naturalism.
The movement which had started early in Germany made its way in England
drama and several modern dramatists like J.B. Priestly, Sean O’ Casey, C.K. Munro,
Elmer Rice have made experiments in the expressionistic tendency in modern drama.
Task
Watch the video clip of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and share your reactions or
insights about the play and its technical and other features.
REFERENCE
https://englishsummary.com/modern-english-drama-characteristics/

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CONTEMPORARY / MODERN DRAMA

At the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITY

Modern Drama Characteristics

History and Biographical Plays

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