Andrzej Diniejko

INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY

STUDIES

3.4

INTRODUCTIO

N TO DRAMA:

Modern

Drama

Synopsis

• In this module we shall

learn about the features of

modern drama.

Examples of Modern Drama

• Henrik Ibsen, A Doll House [1879]

• August Strindberg, Miss Julie [1888]

• Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard

[1903]

• Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, The

Shoemakers (Szewcy) [1931-1934]

• Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

[1949]

• Eugene Ionesco, The Bald Soprano

La (Cantatrice Chauve) [1950]

Features of modern drama

• Indirect action

• Mixing of genres

• Realism & Symbolism

A Doll’s House [1879]

• Nora realises she has been

living like a toy to entertain
first her husband Torvald.

• She decides she must leave if

she is to make something of
her life.

• The play ends with Nora

slamming the door as she
leaves.

A Doll’s House [1879]

• Realistic, modern prose drama

• Theme: A modern woman’s

journey of self-discovery;

• Nora’s struggle is against the

selfish, patrononising and
oppressive attitudes of her
husband, Torvald, and of the male-
dominated society that he
represents.

August Strindberg,Miss Julie

(1888)

• Miss Julie by

August
Strindberg
deals with
class, love/lust
and the battle
of the sexes.

August Strindberg,Miss Julie

(1888)

• Miss Julie, a young

aristocratic woman

attempts to escape

an existence

cramped by

hypocritical morality

and enjoy life.

August Strindberg,Miss Julie

(1888)

• Miss Julie encourages her father's

valet, Jean, to seduce her.

• Next she must live with the

consequences of actions.

• Theme: sexual and social

oppression.

August Strindberg,Miss Julie

(1888)

• Miss Julie, inspired by

the new ideas of

naturalism and

psychology, that

swept Europe in the

late 19th century,

helped to shape

modern drama.

Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard

[1903]

• This play deals with the

theme of human freedom
in many different ways.

Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard

[1903]

• Francis Fergusson calls The

Cherry Orchard as "theatre-

poem”, because the play does

not follow any strict notion of

drama.

• It does not have a plot, and it

does not present a thesis of

any kind.

• The play addresses the poetic

sensibility.

Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard

[1903]

• The Cherry

Orchard is a play
about the passing
of time and about
a society in
transition.

The Cherry Orchard

The Cherry Orchard describes the

lives of a group of Russians, in the

wake of the Liberation of the

serfs. The action takes place over

the course of five or six months,

but the histories of the characters

are so complex that in many ways,

the play begins years earlier

The Cherry Orchard

• The play opens in May, inside

the cherry orchard estate;
friends, neighbours, and
servants are preparing for the
long-awaited return of
Madame Ranevsky, the
mistress of the house, and
her daughter Anya.

The Cherry Orchard

• Madame Ranevsky has two

daughters. She had fled the
cherry orchard five years
before, after the deaths of her
husband and young son. She is
now returning from France,
where her abusive lover had
robbed and abandoned her.

• She has accrued great debts

during her absence.

The Cherry Orchard

• Lopakhin suggests that Madame

Ranevsky build villas on the estate.

She can lease them and use the

money to pay the mortgage.

• Madame Ranevsky and Gayef

object to the idea, and prefer to

work something out on their own.

However, as spring passes into

summer, Madame Ranevsky only

finds herself more in debt, with no

solution in sight.

The Cherry Orchard

• Strange romances between Anya and

Trophimof and Dunyasha and Yasha
continue, while nothing develops
between Lopakhin and Barbara and
Dunyasha and Ephikhodof.

• Madame Ranevsky is receiving

letters from her lover, and Gayef
begins to consider a job at a bank.

• Pishtchik takes out loans from

Madame Ranevsky, whose own funds
are dwindling away to nothing.

The Cherry Orchard

• On the night of the

auction, no solution has
arrived. Madame Ranevsky
holds a ball.

• Charlotte performs, and

guests and servants alike
dance.

The Cherry Orchard

• Madame Ranevsky and

Trophimof have a serious
conversation about Madame
Ranevsky's extravagance;
not only does she continue
to run up debts, but she is
now considering returning to
her abusive lover in France.

The Cherry Orchard

• Madame Ranevsky is nervous

about the outcome of the
auction; she is still hoping for
a miracle.

Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard

[1903]

• Mme. Ranevsky, the owner of the

cherry, is deeply attached to the
family estate.

• She is devoted to it because of

the memory of her ancestors and
because of the many tender ties
which bind her to the orchard.

The Cherry Orchard

• Finally Lopakhin has bought

the cherry orchard. Barbara is
furious, and Madame Ranevsky
is devastated.

• Lopakhin, however, cannot hide

his happiness: he has bought
the estate where his family
lived as serfs. Ironically, he
encourages the party to
continue, even though the
hosts are no longer in the
mood to celebrate.

The Cherry Orchard

• Madame Ranevsky and

Gayef share a nostalgic
moment alone before
leaving on a relatively
optimistic note.

• In the last moment, we

hear axes cutting down
the orchard.

Indirect action

• Indirect Action is a

technique Chekhov was
most famous for.

• It involves action important

to the play's plot occurring
off-stage, not on stage.

• Instead of seeing such action happen,

the audience learns about it by

watching characters react to it onstage.

• Lopakhin's speech at the end of Act III,

recounting the sale of the cherry

orchard, is the most important example

of indirect action in the play: although

the audience does not see the sale, the

entire play revolves around this unseen

action.

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz

• Stanisław Ignacy

Witkiewicz, a.k.a.
"Witkacy" 1885-,
1939) was a Polish
playwright,
novelist, painter,
photographer and
philosopher.

Witkacy, The Shoemakers,

1934

• A play about a revolution

that went wrong and
about the condition of
contemporary man.

Witkacy

• Witkiewicz's protagonists

are beset by troubles and

ensnared by their efforts

to feel the strangeness of

existence.

Witkacy

• Jan Błoński: ”Witkacy's

protagonists constantly talk
about 'a second ego,' 'an
artificial life,' 'a deformation of
life,' 'inverted feelings,' 'a life
beyond life,' 'another world' and
'an artificial mental structure.‘”

Samuel Beckett

• Beckett's

dramas are
stark,
minimalist,
pessimistic,
and deal about
the human
condition.

Waiting for Godot

• Waiting for Godot is a play

by Samuel Beckett, in
which two characters wait
for someone named Godot,
who never arrives.

• Godot's absence, as well

as numerous other aspects
of the play, have led to
many different
interpretations since the
play's premiere.

Waiting for Godot

• The play presents two old

tramps, Vladimir and Estragon
standing on a country road by a
leafless tree and waiting for a
mysterious Mr. Godot.

• But Godot never comes, or he

may not exist; the audience do
not know.

Waiting for Godot

• There is very little action in

the play.

• It shows a static situation.

Waiting for Godot

• "Nothing happens, nobody

comes, nobody goes, it's
awful".

• The subject of the play is

waiting, part of the human
condition.

• People are always waiting for

something or someone, and
nothing ever happens.

• Change is an illusion.

Waiting For Godot

• Vladimir and

Estragon stand on a
country road by a
leafless tree and
wait for a
mysterious Mr
Godot.

Waiting for Godot

• But Godot never comes, or he

may not exist; the audience
do not know.

Waiting For Godot

• The play opens with the

character Estragon struggling
to remove his boot from his
foot. Estragon eventually gives
up, muttering, "Nothing to be
done." His friend Vladimir takes
up the thought and muses on it,
the implication being that
nothing is a thing that has to be
done and this pair is going to
have to spend the rest of the
play doing it.

Waiting For Godot

• When Estragon finally succeeds

in removing his boot, he looks
and feels inside but finds
nothing.

• Just prior to this, Vladimir

peers into his hat. The motif
recurs throughout in the play.

Waiting for Godot

• Estragon, sitting

on a low mound,
is trying to take
off his boot. He
pulls at it with
both hands,
panting.

Waiting for Godot

• The pair discusses repentance,

particularly in relation to the two

thieves crucified alongside Jesus,

and the fact that only one of the

four Evangelists mentions that

one of them was saved.

• This is the first of numerous

Biblical references in the play,

which may be linked to its

putative central theme of the

search for and reconciliation with

God, as well as salvation: "We're

saved!" they cry on more than

one occasion when they feel that

Godot may be near.

Waiting for Godot

• The subject of the

play is waiting,

part of the human

condition. People

are always waiting

for something or

someone, and

nothing ever

happens. Change

is an illusion. The

play emphasises

the absurdity of

the human

condition.

Eugène Ionesco

• Eugène Ionesco (1909 –1994),

was a Romanian/French

playwright and dramatist, one

of the foremost playwrights of

the Theatre of the Absurd.

• Beyond ridiculing the most

banal situations, Ionesco, like

Beckett, depicts the solitude of

humans and the insignificance

of one's existence

Ionesco, The Bald Soprano,

1950

• Deconstruction

of language

The Bald Soprano

• The play came out of

Ionesco’s attempts to
learn English from a book.

The Bald Soprano

• He began to read

the English primer
as if it were a
traditional
narrative and, by
decontextualising
the narrative in
this way, began to
see the absurd
possibilities in
literature.

The Bald Soprano

• The Smiths are a traditional

family from London, who have
invited another family, the
Martins, over for a visit. They
are joined later by the Smiths'
maid, Mary, and the local fire
chief, who is also a friend and
possibly former lover of
Mary's.

The Bald Soprano

• The two families engage in

meaningless conversation,

telling stories and relating

nonsensical poems.

• As the fire chief turns to leave,

he mentions "the bald soprano"

in passing, which has a very

unsettling effect on the others.

• Mrs Smith replies that "she

always wears her hair in the

same style."

The Lesson

The one-act comedy

about an insane
professor tutoring a
brick-brained student

Ionesco, The Lesson

• The play takes place in the

office and dining room of a

small French flat.

• The Professor, an elderly

man of about 60, is

expecting a new Pupil

(aged 18).

Ionesco, The Lesson

• The third character is the

professor's Maid, a stout,

red-faced woman of about 40

to 50, who is always

worrying about the

Professor's "health".

•

The Lesson - an Absurdist

Classic

•

• A professor awaits a fresh pupil's

arrival, brushing off the maid's

warnings of the dark things that

may come of yet another lesson...

The pupil arrives, eager to learn --

seemingly promising and bright...

But as the pupil's limitations

become evident, the professor's

frustration grows, and the day's

lesson takes its foreshadowed,

perilous turn.

Ionesco, The Lesson

• As the lesson progresses, the

Professor grows more and more

the Pupil's ignorance, and the

Pupil becomes more and more

quiet and meek.

• At the climax of the play, the

Pupil is murdered by the

Professor, after a long absurd

”examination”).

Ionesco, The Lesson

• The play ends as a new

pupil is greeted by the
Maid.

• Common themes include

language, mathematics,
absurdity of existence.

Sławomir Mrożek

• Mrożek's works are sharply

comical and they belong to the
Theatre of the Absurd.

• They create their effects

through illusion, political and
historic references, distortion,
and parody.

Mrożek, Tango

• Conflict

between
conformism
& formalism.

Mrożek, Tango

• Slawomir Mrożek presents

in his drama the grotesque
vision of the world, full of
buffoonery, exaggeration,
caricatural forms.

Mrożek, Na pełnym morzu

• Human

behaviour in
extreme
situations

Bibliography

• Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the

Absurd. Woodstock, NY: Overlook, 1973.

• Evans, Gareth Lloyd. The Language of

Modern Drama. Totowa, NJ:

– Rowman and Littlefield, 1977.
– Wikipedia and other Internet sources.
– Photo credits: Wikipedia