Course book

• Introduction to the Modern Age

• Introduction to Modern Theatre
• Riders to the Sea (1904) A play by John Millington
Synge
• Warnings (1913) by Eugene O'Neill
• No Exit (1944) A play by Jean-Paul Sartre
•
 Modern Age
• In Europe
• Classism or Classical Age : 230 BC? - 5th c
• Middle Ages : 5th century – 15th century
• Modern Age : 15th (Renaissance or Early Modern Age)
- Modern Age starts from Industrial
Revolution(1760?) + French Revolution(1789) –
continues till now.
 Modern Age

Key Thinkers:
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• Albert Einstein
• Sigmund Freud
• Karl Marx
• Charles Darwin
The Scream (1893)
By Edvard Munch
1: Pollution
2. Dangers of Technology
3. Race for Power: World War I
Chemical Warfare and Mass Killings
The Great Depression
1929
Breaking Off the Old Values and
Standards
• Collapse of Religions, especially in Europe and Asia.

• Collapse of moral and social values.

• Collapse of world relationships.

• Collapse of human beings as the center of the

universe.
• Collapse of the normal or rural methods of life.
In the absence of the previously mentioned
doctrines and values the following appeared:

• People were free to do what they wanted to do. Some

followed non-religious communities while others
started following the non-Christianity rites and
practices. T. S. Eliot, for example, talks about finding
peace and order in eastern and sometimes African so-
called religions.
 Alienation
Marx identified four types:
• 1.The alienation of the workers from the products of
their labor.
• 2. The alienation experienced in the production or
labor process.
• 3.Alienation from our species-essence or human
essence.
• 4. The alienation of man from man or from society.
 Rebirth of Drama
Melodrama
A type of drama that was popular in the 19th century. It was
known for its exaggeration of characters and events. It appealed
to emotions mostly.

Characteristics:
Moral Polarization (Good vs. Bad)
Overwrought emotions
Sensationalism
Non-classical Structures
Well-made play: A play constructed according to a
predetermined pattern and aiming at neatness of plot
and theatrical effectiveness but often being mechanical
and stereotyped (over-simplified image of human
beings).
Characteristics: Clear beginning and ending, neatness of
plot, over-simplification of plot, lack of realism, lack of
human characteristics.
Problem Plays
Is another play type that became popular in the 19th century.
It focused mostly on the problems of individuals in the society. It
was also related with the Realistic plays
 Realism (Realistic plays)
It started as a reaction to Romanticism in the middle of 19th
century. It focused on true-to-life descriptions of human
lives and normal situations. Realistic theatre avoided over-
simplified characters or over-fabricated characters, the
events were actual and supernatural elements were also
avoided.
Realist plays almost dominated the twentieth century
theatre .
Henrik Ibsen was sane, rational, progressive, and formal.

Strindberg was insane (not literally), irrational, informal,

neurotic, reactionary, religious, fragmented.

Ibsen’s best and most famous work is his A Doll’s House in

1879.
Strindberg’s famous play is his Miss Julie.
In the modernist Age:
Religious values and absolutes were broken
down.
Moral values and Absolutes were also broken
down.
Traditional values and rules were also broken
down.
Man has lost his place as the centre of the
universe.
 In the modernist age:
• Avant-garde : writers who were experimental in their works.
In Drama, experiments were made in theme and structure.
• The themes were about the forgotten and often neglected
layers of the society. The playwrights were mostly exposing
the problems that people are ashamed to talk about or discuss.
For example, Shaw’s Miss Warren’s Profession.
• The form or structure undergone a change as well. The unities
are no long followed by most of the playwrights. Three act and
one act plays were quite popular in the modernist age.
Realism
• It is an attempt to represent subject matter
truthfully, without artificiality and
avoiding artistic conventions, exotic, and
supernatural elements.
Naturalism
• Naturalism proceeded from realism, and can
be seen as an exaggerated form of realism; it
shows humans as being determined by
environment, heredity, and social conditions
beyond their control, and thus rather helpless
to escape their circumstances.
Expressionism:
• It is somehow the opposite of realism. It seeks to create a
subjective, self-centred, exaggerated, often distorted surface
reality image to depict an inner truth.
• Eugene O’neil ‘s Thirst is a good example.
Surrealism:
• Surrealist plays tend to show a non-realistic or often
fantastic image that shows a deeper and more
complex meaning of reality.
• No Exit by Sartre is a good example.
Futurism
• It emerged in Italy in 1909 and ended with the WWII. It
favoured machines, wars and fascism.
SKEPTICISM
• The movement suggests that it is impossible to
become certain about anything in this world and
beyond it. Thus, one must actively reject all the
absolutes or rules.
Nihilism
• It is generally the rejection of morality or religion. It
sometimes rejects all the established rules or absolutes.
Relativism
• It means that truth and reality is relative i.e. It is not
fixed but changes as the persons or the situations
change.
Existentialism
• It focuses on the existence of human beings. It shows
hopelessness, helplessness and sometimes uselessness
of human beings.