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CONTEMPORARY DRAMA - Coggle Diagram
CONTEMPORARY DRAMA
Main changes
ARISTOTELIAN THEATRE
ANTI-ARISTOTELIAN / ANTI-REALISTIC THEATRE
INNOVATIONS AFTER WW II
EPIC THEATRE
episodic style
no suspension of disbelief
usually broke out into
songs
appealed to
reason
aimed to reveal the
human condition
as determined by
social and political forces
Alienation
was crucial:
audience
distanced from the
action on stage
and awakened to
action
THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
form and content related to the metaphysical anguish at the absurdity of human condition
no plot
no recognisable characters
no beginning nor end
incoherent language
reflections of dreams and nightmares
inability to directly represent human experience or truth
pauses and silences
lack of communication
AFRICAN-AMERICAN THEATRE
REVOLUTIONARY THEATRE
avant-garde
VIETNAM PLAYS
Psychodramas
Making meaning out of experience
addressing shifting representations of American identity after the war
PERFORMANCE ART
challenged the dominant power structures of society
Exposed the language, values and assumptions set up by patriarchal constructs
artists addressed the audience
unconventional and controversial techniques
"happenings"
/ spontaneity and improvisation in performance
political
expresses complex cultural and personal experiences
realistic and antilrealistic dramatic modes
plays with
hip-hop
style and rap dialogue
THEATRE OF CRUELTY
connected to the unconscious mind (favoring intuition,
feeling and experience over reason)
disruption of prior conceptions
social awakening, forcing us to experience in the theatre what civilisation does not allow
use of gesture, sounds
represents preological human instincts and deisres in their purest states
chaos and violence beyond rational constructs
stage settings are not specific of a certain time or place
blurred lines between actor/character/real person
multiple views of reality
re-establishing dominant social order
"catharsis"
/ purging of negative emotions
"mimesis" / mirroring reality
presenting "Truth" as fixed and stable
Some aspects of Contemporary British Drama
An infant crying in the night
Contemporary man surrounded by
darkness
, which generates
fear
expresses
anxiety and dispair
sense of
insecurity
and
instability
isolation and loneliness
passivity
Crying for the light
The contemporary man that
accepts
the
challenge
involved
people
cosmic, social or individual
commitment
Search for
purpose, God, Truth or a witness
love, understanding and communication
With no language but a cry
devaluation
of language as a
means of communication
in a highly
individualistic
age
Use of
gestures, callisthenics, gags, games, make-believe, masks, symbols, action, noises, music, song and pauses