Introduction to the Theatre

THE 101 / University of Idaho

Chapter 19 / Anti Realism

 Historical Background

     Obviously, the anti-realism movement is a reaction to the realism movement.   However, this was more than a knee jerk reaction to the scientific examination of human relationships to society, culture, and politic.   It was a burst of creative activity in both art and language.   During the late 19^th century an enfranchised citizenry of educated, thinking, voters and consumers were exercising their right to cognitive dissent.   On the political level, this resulted in the Russian Revolution of 1917.   Philosophically and scientifically, there was a growing acceptance of the validity of analytical and clinical psychology, which had began to expose the intricacies of the human mind.

     Fredrich Nietzche, a German philosopher, postulated that the human mind contained both the apollonian and Dionysian modes of thought.  The apollonian mode was controlled and complicated, while the Dionysian was ritualistic and primal.   In response, Sigmund Freud explored the psyche and subconscious.  He identified and substantiated his psychological form of the apollonian mode - called the Ego and the psychological Dionysian mode - called the Id.   In addition, Freud also identified the ‘moderator’ of these two forces, which he termed the Superego.   Carl Jung, another psychologist, was exploring the human mind during sleep.   He documented his work in Dream States.   To add to this already interesting mix of was the social experimentation with the occult through séances and documented in novels and poetry.  These fascinations can easily be found in the literary mysteries of Edgar Allen Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

     To the anti-realist there was more to the human being than could be measured with the five senses and, quite pointedly, beyond the realm of science.   They believed that there existed some cosmic mystery beyond a person’s ability to control, like a huge primal iceberg it went unnoticed as it bobbed below the surface.   As a result of this type of thought, the human being as portrayed in drama was a complex system that was not always restricted or definable by scientific theory.

     As artists were exploring the potential of the human mind beyond science and scientific expectation, they were further mystified by the insensitive and indiscriminate destruction of modern warfare.   Beginning with the American Civil War and continuing through the Crimean, Mexican-American, Spanish-American, Russian-Japan, Boer and, of course, First World Wars, the destructive capacity of modern armaments continued to decimate the soldiers and civilians of four continents.   The sheer number of people killed or displaced by warfare during this time was staggering and would not to be outdone until World War II.

The Theatre:

     Theatre’s initial reaction to this psychology and mysticism was a production of Paellas and Melisandra directed by Paul Fort at the Theatre Du Art in Paris.   The first anti-realist piece, it contained little dialogue, used gauze fabric to separate the audience from the actor, and used no scenery.   It received mild acclaim and generated little interest.   In contrast, Richard Wagner was combining music, mythology, and heavy special effects to create German opera.   The scope and grandeur of Wagnerian opera continues to amaze and amuse us even today.   The Seattle and Santa Fe Opera regularly stage The Ring, a cycle opera (3 parts) in repertory, complete with flying valkeries, a burning planet, and an undersea adventure.   Combining their talents with Wagner’s theories, scenic designers were experimenting with anti-realistic scenery.   Both Adolph Appia and Gordon Craig were known for their experimentation with imaginative and minimalistic scenery, which used both representational mass and strong mood lighting.   Theatre’s reaction to the insensitivity and brutal meaninglessness of war became implanted in the both the message, and theme of the representative style, in which the pieces were written.   To be more specific, they picked up identifying traits that collected or placed them in schools of philosophical thought or ‘isms’.

     This is the period of ‘isms’ not only present in the theater of the times, but also in the art and philosophy of the period.   The major movements are as follows:

·        Symbolism

·        Expressionism

·        Absurdism

·        Futurism

·        Dada-ism

·        Existentialism

·        Surrealism

·        Constructivism

·        Formalism

     Symbolism uses poetic imagery and fantasy to replace the ‘spiritual bankruptcy’ of realism.   This form of artistic expression relies on the abstraction, enlargement, and innovative use of everyday symbols.   In addition, the use of symbols and their various combinations creates a new set of symbols by which the audience perceives the world.    Swedish playwright August Strindberg employs symbolism in two of his most famous works A Dream Play and The Ghost Sonata.

     Like symbolism, expressionism is a reaction against realism.  In fact, expressionism is not concerned with reality at all.  It states that feelings and emotions are at the center of human existence.   Theatrically, this movement is identified by its use of mystical themes and an exploration of the inner spirit, which relies on a heavy amount of, stylized movement and speech.   Eugene O’Neill, whose plays include The Harry Ape and The Emperor Jones, is considered the leading American theatrical expressionist.

     In contrast, Absurdism relies on a complete deference to the standards, rules, and forms of existing drama.  At the heart of the movement is the notion that human beings live an ‘absurd’ existence, with limited abilities to communicate to each other, while struggling in an unpredictable universe.   Eugene Ionesco, along with Samuel Beckett, are considered the leaders of the absurdist movement in drama.  In his play, Rhinoceros, Ionesco portrays a town full of people that literally become rhinoceroses.  This leaves the main character - which does not conform and therefore is not transformed, isolated and unable to communicate with anybody.

     Futurism is a movement based on the vision of an exalted machine age where humans are subservient to the machine.   For instance in one production of the time, the actor was portrayed by a moving beam of light.   Mostly an Italian invention, futurism was filled with male machismo and an aggressive style.   They glorified modern mechanized warfare, and while, ironically, all of them were killed in World War I, their work fueled the Bauhaus and Art Deco art movements.   In addition, some of the futurist’s ideals later showed up in the political doctrines of the fascists.   Elements of futurism can be found in films like George Orwell’s 1984 and Fritz Lange’s Metropolis.

     In stark protest and contrast, Dada (ism) was a reaction to the absurdity of war and politics.   As an art form, Dada seeks to create social unbalance.   Dada plays are a mix of unrelated and disjointed elements in the hope to confuse audience members.  This confusion is created in order to have those audience members re-evaluate and reconsider their accepted notions of art by forcing them to consider a different viewpoint.   Even the word Dada itself (which is French for ‘hobbyhorse’) was selected at random out of the dictionary.  The premiere examples of Dada come from the artist Marcelle Duchamp, who mounted bicycle wheels to chair seats and removed urinals from rest rooms, signed them, and put them on display (labeled ‘ready mades’).

     Existentialism centers on the importance of individual experience.  It stresses the importance of freedom and a commitment to personal choice and responsibility.   However, it strongly promotes rebellion against authority and a rejection of accepted societal morality or traditional religion.   Defined by the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegard, who stated “I must find that truth that is true for me”, the existentialist movement in the theatre is marked by the works of Jean Paul Sarte (No Exit) and Albert Camus (Caligula).

     Taking a different view, surrealism relies on the premise that the subconscious is the eye to the soul and that the true key to knowledge is the understanding of the dream.   The première artists of this movement are Salvidor Dali, M.C. Esher, and Magritte.   Plays like Appollonaire’s Metamorphosis also venture into this arena.   In the play, the main character, a Paris businessman, wishes to be free of his job and life.   By the end of the play and through an amazing chrysalis, he changes into a butterfly.

     Constructivism relies on an industrial approach to art.   It can be severely geometric and promotes both functionalism and utilitarianism.   In theatre, the scenery becomes a machine for acting and an integral part of the actor’s movements.   The Russian director Vesvelod Meyerhold pioneered this style of theatre.   Elements of this theatre movement can be seen in Cirque Du Soleil, the Umo Ensemble, and the Pilobolus and Momix dance companies.

     Formalism, as the name implies, is the excessive adherence to recognized structure and presentation.   You would be a formalist if you produced a neoclassical play - like Racine’s Phaedra, along the rules of neoclassical drama.   Although problematic, formalism is a beginning point for young theatre practitioners and provides for good showcase productions of classical theatre.

     Finally, eclecticism relies on the theatre practitioner’s ability to mix and match the above movements in a logical and artistic manner.   As the name implies, it is an eclectic theatre experience.   In many ways the modern movement in theatre continues to combine, extract, and define these preceding movements and their ideals.   As artists we continue to view life from as many angles as possible hoping to make better sense of the world around us.

The Playwrights and Theatrical Conventions:

     In many ways it easier to talk about the playwrights during this period in association with the movements they belonged to.   This is because many of these ideas and artistic ideals are being experimented with and many schools of thought are beginning to develop around particular playwrights works.   These schools of thought are further incorporated into theatre movements of specific philosophical purpose and focus.   We will explore the following specific movements and their associated directors and playwrights:

·        Theatre of Alienation           Bertolt Brecht

·        Theatre of the Absurd         Samuel Beckett

·        Theatre of Cruelty               Antonin Artaud

·        Bio-Mechanics                   Vesvelod Meyerhold

·        Expressionistic Theatre       Eugene O’Neil

·        The Poor Theatre               Jerzy Growtowski

·        Agit-Prop Theatre              The Living Newspaper

·        Post War Realism               Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller

     Bertolt Brecht's, “Theatre of Alienation” grew out of the school of German expressionism attempting to explore the mystical nature of the inner mind and its perceptions.   So called ‘epic theatre’ Brecht choose subjects and themes drawn from far eastern cultures to help distance the audience from the familiar.   Since these plays were mythologically based on complex stories like The Iliad and The Odyssey, the name ‘epic theatre stuck.   Brecht used two very interesting techniques to make the audience aware that they were watching a theatre production, alienation and historification.

     Through alienation Brecht was attempting to remind the audience that what they were watching was only a production put on by actors and shaped by the director.   Ultimately, the important key to any drama for Brecht was the story.   He would alienate his audience by combining live action with film and slides.   His use of a narrator broke the imaginary fourth wall of the theatre and made the audience doubly aware of the storytelling aspect found in theatre.   He would also have the scenery changes done au vista or in front of the audience, and allow the lighting instruments to be seen.   Even special effects like lightning and fog were not disguised.   Finally, he used a historification effect to alienate his audience.   Brecht historified plays by starting the production in the present, and then leaping back into a parallel story from mythological past, which then jumped back to the present ‘historifying’ the problem faced by the present day characters.   For this ‘exposed’ and ‘raw’ quality it became known as the theatre of the rough.  Bertolt Brecht’s works include The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Good Woman of Setzuan, and Three Penny Opera.

     As explained before, Samuel Beckett’s was one of the lead dramatists working in “The Theatre of the Absurd.”   He attempted to show the meaninglessness of ‘truth’ and the unproved necessity of society, religion, and government.   Beckett achieved this absurd nature in his plays through the use of unresolved endings and through the psychological rejection of the audience.   Beckett’s plays do not end in the traditional and classical sense; everything is seemingly left in limbo.   This leaves the audience with unresolved thoughts about the play and wondering what might have happened if there had been closure.   Beckett also does not allow the audience to sympathize or empathize with the characters on stage.   They stand apart from the world of ‘us’; they exist on their own terms.   In many ways this is a very ritualized form of performance like a mass, austere, purposeful, highly symbolic.   It is this ritualistic nature that earned Beckett’s style of theatre the name “theatre of the holy.”   Samuel Beckett’s plays include Waiting for Godot, End Game, and Happy Days.

     As outlined in his book, The Theatre and Its Double, Antonin Artaud attempted to dispel the cultural repetition of the arts.  He wanted to produce a theatre more in line with Nietzsche’s Dionysian mode and Freud’s Id.  Artaud wanted an art that shook people to their primal core and which created new symbols and did not repeat old ones.   It was Artaud’s belief that theatre was the best vehicle for this ‘new art’ and well situated to “breathing life back into the shadows of the soul”.   From the surrealist school of thought, Artaud’s work was based on mythical themes and was presented in a ritualistic style.   He minimized the use of dialogue and substituted gestures, physical movement and sounds. In addition, his work was aggressive in its presentation, approach, and subject matter earning it the name, “theatre of cruelty.”   A noted poet and screenwriter, Artaud’s only original play is Les Cenci, a play which recounts the ferocity and corruption of the Italian Renaissance.

     Vesvelod Meyerhold, a Russian director, began to experiment with a concept called biomechanics in acting.   Similar to method acting, biomechanics uses physical recall instead of emotional recall.   This physicalization was intended to create an emotional state by creating a ‘muscle memory’ of events like fear and love.   The physical nature of this acting style requires acrobatic theatricalism and machines for acting.   Like the whirling dervish dancers of the Russian Caucasus and Cossack tribes, it is fast paced, imaginative and highly physical.   Theatre today retains this strong integration of the actor and the scenery.

     As explained earlier, expressionistic theatre is best typified by the work of Eugene O’Neill.   His expressionistic plays experimented with disjointed plots, with staccato like, and rapid dialogue.   This disjointed and staccato like quality is combined with highly overt symbolism creating a scenic impression.   For example, in the New York production of the Hairy Ape, the boiler room wall fills the stage and the light from the open doors is almost blinding.   The dancing ape like figures of the stokers is silhouetted against the looming machine, which they serve.   They bark out and grunt their dialogue as they feed the hungry ships engine.

     Jerzy Grotowski, a Polish actor and director begins to experiment with a physical form of acting that is less ‘circus’ like and more realistic.   In his book, Towards a Poor Theatre, Grotowski describes a theatre independent from the trappings of spectacle.   Grotowski’s theatre needs only the actor and the script, thus making it visually poor yet literally rich.   The acting style is realistic yet physical.   The spaces chosen for the production are located or ‘found’ and environmental to the script.   In his New York production of The Student Prince, a modern day passion play, the actor playing Christ was so effective in portraying pain as he was ‘nailed’ to the cross, audience members would stand to go to his aid.   It was performed in a heavy beamed warehouse strangely reminiscent of execution hill in Calvary.   It is interesting to note that modern day actors combine Stanislavsky’s memory recall with Grotowski’s physical recall to create a complete personal acting package.

     The stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing depression shook American industry, and government to the core.   Roosevelt’s New Deal promised to jump start the country and pull it out of its financial tailspin.   Art during this recovery period included the employment of laid-off Americans in public works projects like the power plants in the Tennessee Valley and the Grand Coulee and Hoover Dams.   The Work Projects Administration - a newly created branch of the federal government, oversaw these projects.   Among the public projects was the first, and only, national theatre called The Living Newspaper.   It was the responsibility of The Living Newspaper to cover the topics central to the recovering American economy.

     Oddly similar to WPA, the recently formed communist government produced a branch in the government called the Politburo, and it too had a national theatre company whose task was to promote the communist state and educate its citizens about various issues.   While the purposes of these theaters are similar they remain slightly different.   The Living Newspaper, under the United States Constitution, was able to extend its right to the freedom of speech.   Its plays attacked the graft and corruption of the Tennessee Valley Authority, as well as exposed the unsafe work practices at Hoover Dam and other federal projects.   While these events were true, this did not serve the federal theatre company well and it was discontinued through a ‘funding cancellation’.   Reactionary and documentary theatre of this type is labeled Agit-prop Theater - which refers to its agitation propaganda agenda.   Today this style of theatre is found in many of the radical feminist, gay, and ethnic theaters in America.   For example, agit-prop theatre is the root of El Teatro Campensino - a noted contemporary Hispanic Theatre Group, and the original theatre group of Caesar Chavez’s Farm Laborers Movement.

     After World War II, Americans were beginning to get their lives back in order and enjoy the peace and prosperity of the post-war recovery and boom.   Playwrights like Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller began to experiment with a new form of realism, which used elements from both symbolism and expressionism.   In addition, the new style incorporated the acting styles of Stanislavsky and the developing styles of physicalization.   This style has become truly ‘American’ and it can be seen not only on stage, but it has also influenced the writing style used in film from the 1950’s to the 1970’s.   The plays of Williams and Miller remain part of the repertory of most production groups and organizations functioning today.

     What is important to remember about all these movements and ideas is that from a single concept, realistic drama, a multitude of approaches and ideas in and about theatre explode onto the cultural scene.   It mirrors the proliferation of art styles and philosophical viewpoints during this time and like the Information Age it continues to grow at its own pace and under its own power.

Staging & Spectacle:

     Theatricalism denotes the style of production during this period.   In short, the style of the production, as chosen by the director, dictates the aesthetic rules by which the production team works.   Currently, producing Shakespeare does not mean that it has to be done in Renaissance England.   Indeed, artists have found that updating the location and time of a Shakespearean play makes it more believable, and in a sense, breathes new life into it.   Moreover, advances in technology have also strongly influenced this period and its theatrical spectacle.

     The use of plastics, steel, aluminum, advanced lighting control, and sound recording equipment drastically changed the face of theatre production and quality.   This is also a period of open experimentation both in design and production and has resulted in the development of the minimalistic and fractured realism styles.   Minimalism is a style, which reduces the design elements to the least number necessary to produce the production.   Fractured realism uses limited realistic elements separated in a fractured nature.

     Furthermore, a division of the theatre workforce into separate specialized artisans increases both operational efficiency and overall quality.   The development of the technical director to oversee the production elements further organizes the modern theater.   However, this specialization requires a great amount of trust and collaboration between the director and other artists on the production team.   The advent of director/designer teams like Eli Kazan and Jo Melziner are in response to this emerging need for collaboration.