Transcript RESTORATION AND 18TH CENTURY ENGLISH THEATRE

RESTORATION AND 18TH
CENTURY ENGLISH
THEATRE
RESTORATION AND 18TH CENTURY
ENGLISH THEATRE
• King Charles II
– Restored to throne 1660
– Fashioned theatre after that in France
• Elizabethan playhouses had been torn down by
Puritans so new ones were needed
• New indoor theatres were
built
• John Dryden
– All for Love
• Women were allowed to
perform
• William Congreve
– The Way of the World
• Audience
– sophisticated
aristocracy
• Restoration ended in 1737
• Play = comedies / satires
SATIRE
• Satire is a play in which sarcasm, irony, and
ridicule are used to expose or attack folly or
pretension is society
• Stories represented real people and real
events
• Strengths and weaknesses in characters are
exposed and all characters are held up to
moral standards either civically or divinely
• Parliament limited public playhouses to 3
• The term “Legitimate Theatre” was born
– Then, it meant plays were censored.
Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774)
Considered best comedy writer since Shakespeare
Romanticism
Romanticism
• Relied on emotions and feelings
• Melodrama- most popular type of
Romanticism where the hero always succeeded
• Playwrights made clear distinctions between
good and evil
• Forces of good always won
MELODRAMA
• Comes from "music drama"
– music was used to increase emotions or to signify
characters (signature music).
• A simplified moral universe; good and evil are
embodied in stock characters.
• Episodic form
– the villain poses a threat, the hero or heroine escapes,
etc.—with a happy ending.
• Usually 2-5 acts
– (five acts reserved for "serious" drama).
• Many special effects
– fires, explosions, drownings, earthquakes.
Realism
1820-1920
• Began as reaction against Romanticism
• Mid century dramatic style = Realism
– Seeks the truth / depicts a selected view
• Presented things as in real life (often dealt
with social problems)
• Major author: Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)
– “Father of Realism”
– Revolutionary themes
• Ghosts
• A Doll’s House
– Realistically showed the day’s problems
Henrik Ibsen
Drama depicting real people, real events
• Ibsen's early plays are wild and epic, concentrating
on romantic visions of the rebel figure in search of
an ultimate truth which is always just out of reach
• "modern" phase suppresses his Romanticism and
focuses instead on the problems of modern society
• These plays are characterized by their "realism,"
which he hoped would help audiences to more
easily digest his radical views
England’s George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Pygmalion
– Wanted to reform the world through his work
Oscar Wilde (1856-1900)
– The Importance of Being Earnest
• Comedy of Manners
• 20th century playwrights include Arthur
Miller (The Crucible and Death of a Salesman)
• Tennessee Williams (The Glass Menagerie)
• Lillian Hellman – most influential female
playwright
MUSICAL THEATRE
• A play in which the story is told through a
combination of spoken dialogue and
musical numbers
• Andrew Lloyd Webber – composer of a
variety of musicals
– Cats
– Jesus Christ Superstar
– Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor
Dreamcoat
– Phantom of the Opera
– Evita