Apuntes de Teatro Inglés, Apuntes de Teatro

¡Descarga Apuntes de Teatro Inglés y más Apuntes en PDF de Teatro solo en Docsity! ENGLISH THEATRE TEMA 1 A. Drama Drama means action in ancient Greek. Is the form of composition designed for performance in the theatre. Drama needs actors to perfume the characters, a stage design and must be temporary. B. Theatre Theatron means a place to see in Greek. 1- Is the physical space where the performance takes place 2- The whole production of a drama play 3- Theatre occurs whenever someone crosses neutral space and is watched. a. Origins i. Greek theatre was born at the end of IV.s. A the beginning, it was used to ritual or religious purposes as in Tragedy. The characters were kings, gods, and heroes. In this genre the destiny was crucial to the hero, he has a duty to fulfil his fate in order to don’t angry gods. Heroes deal with a great number of circumstances to increase the dramatic action. Tragedy has a unity of time and space. The objective was to produce catharsis in the emotions of the audience. ii. Time to time it was replaced to another Greek drama, Comedy. It was used for social denunciation. The characters were from low or middle class and most of the time ends up happily. The point of this gender was to criticize and moralize audience about some aspect of the society of the time. b. Performance The visible part of the play – mise-en-scene Director = the official responsible for organizing the production – Ian Rickson - In charge of the whole stage performance = acting, costumes, music, digital media, lighting, stage design, … c. Audience Cannot be theatre without audience The spectator = is conscious of the conventions Audience and stage – identification and critical distance 2 Genres 17th: Comedy of Manners 1920’s: Expressionism 18th – 19th: Romantic Drama 1930’s: Theatre of Cruelty 19th – 20th: Well-made play – ½ 20th: Dialectical Theatre/ Epic Theatre Problem play – Symbolism – 2/2 20th: Theatre of the Absurd Realistic/Naturalistic play 1990’s: In-yer-face theatre GENRES TEMA 2: COMEDY OF MANNERS TO REALISM/NATUALISM Is a minor dramatic genre from the second half of the 17th century. The comedy of manners was mildly critical of the vices of burgess society and tended towards melodrama. During the late 19the century it was abandoned to realism. 1. OSCAR WILDE (1854 – 1900) Oscar Wilde was the most famous playwriter of his time. At first, he tried to produce a drama based on French influences genre symbolism in Salome, but it was not popular in Britain because of the religious subject matter. After that, he tries to write comedies of manners. At first, he becomes famous in all his plays. An ideal Husband, that deals with politics and morality. Exposes the need of the late Victorian society to keep up appearances. Two couples, one with an ideal of incorruptibility and the other giving to human nature. It is a melodrama mixed with humor and satire. Huge commercial success. Lady Windermere´s Fan, is a social satire on the hypocrisy of Victorian to women and sex. In contrast, he also wrote comedy as in the Importance of being Earnest. There is a confusion of identities as in Farce genre. It is a denunciation of the double standard of Victorian Society. It is his masterpiece. Despite the play’s appearance of entertainment, at the end Wilde was strongly criticize by upper classes. 5 TEMA 3: MODERNISM – IRISH INDEPENDENCE It is a revolutionary movement in the arts involving literature, architecture, design, music, cinema, painting, and theatre. It was set up between 1900 and the beginning of World War II. These social and political changes transformed drastically the Europe society: World War I Russian revolution Irish independence and Irish Civil War – The partition of Ireland and the beginning of the Free State Wall Street Crash in 1929 Spanish Civil War Cosmopolitanism. Innovation and transformation of old literary styles THE IRISH QUESTION v. “The Irish Question” was the issue debated primarily among the British government from the early 19th century until the 1920s of how to respond to Irish nationalism and the calls for Irish independence. vi. The Irish Literary Revival, also known as the 'Irish Renaissance' describes a movement of increased literary and intellectual engagement in Ireland starting in the late 19th century. The most famous Irish playwriters of these movement are William Butler Yeats, Sean O’Casey, Lady Augusta Gregory and John Millington Synge. Revive the old Gaelic culture and language and press for Irish independence. vii. Abbey Theatre: Irish National Theatre in 1904, where it stages the most innovative drama in other Europeans countries apart from providing Irish playwriters to stage their work in English and Gaelic. viii. Irish Independence: began with the Easter Rising in 1916. It was a rebellion in Dublin, (Ireland) on April carried out by members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and members of the Irish Citizens Army. It was done to protest British rule in Ireland. ix. The Irish War of Independence (1919-1921): It started when a small number of IRA (The Irish Republican Army) shot two Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). This murder began the Irish War of Independence. Michael Collins signed a peace treaty in which, Ireland would be divided: the north will remain part of British crown. x. Civil War (1922-1923): was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United Kingdom but within the British Empire. 6 3. SEAN O’CASEY (1880 – 1964) It was one of most important Irish playwrights. He was a very poor protestant and knew very well the catholic rights. He changes his name to John Csey, he made it Irish. He believed all his life in Irish independence, the working-class independence. Quite disappointed with the ones who rule the nation, turned to socialism for the worker’s struggle. His plays as other playwrights were staged in Abbey Theatre and became a commercial success. The Dublin trilogy plays are considered his masterpiece: naturalism mixed with music hall tragedy and comedy. As he was very poor, he expresses his sympathy for the lower classes in his plays and a strong rejection of Britain rule over Ireland and the murderous destruction of Irish nationalists. He moved to London in 1926 when his plays tended to be expressionism and too didactic. This are his three Dublin trilogy plays: The Shadow of Gunman, was set during Irish War of independence. It has a strong criticism against British army. While O’Casey characterize male as useless lazy or cowards, women are presented as the strong gender. The Plough and the Stars is the name of the flag of the Irish army. O’Casey was involved in the founding of the Irish Citizen Army. This play was set during the easter Rising in 1916. O’Casey was in favor nationalism until he was terrible disappointed because it became very conservative. This play generated a great scandal because a prostitute was dancing with an officer. O’Casey was very criticized so he go away from Ireland. JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK (PEACOCK – PAVO REAL) This play was set during the Civil War (1922 – 1923). It was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United Kingdom but within the British Empire. The play has comic scenes, songs and music, melodrama, political discourse, suspense, and tragedy. Melodrama: they are in agony because of their poorness, they are extreme happiness for becoming rich and then in triple agony with the notice that they are poorer than before, the Mary’s baby and Johnny death. 7 i. Characters Captain Boyle, lazy, drunk and useless Mrs. Doyle – strong Mary Johnny Joxer, bad friend and liar Charles Bentham, coward Jerry, he doesn’t love enough Mary. Tancred, she has just lost her son ii. Myth Juno’s nickname: ancient roman god, Hera in Greek mythology. She was Jupiter’s (Zeus) wife. She was the deity of marriage, women, and family. She was the mother of the gods. She is painted with peacocks. iii. Sentences Mary/Captain Boyle - A principle is a principle Mrs. Boyle – I’m killing myself working and he is strutting from morning till night like a peacock! Boyle – when the cat’s away, the mice can play! Ireland Johnny – Ireland only half free will never be at peace while she has a son left to pull a trigger. Religious – the priests always in the van of fight for ireland’s freesom. Boyle – religion is passing away they had their day like evrything Joxer – God never shut one door, but he opened another! Mary- I don’t believe he was ever drunk in his life, sure he is not like a Christian at al. Joxer – Christian is natural, but he is unnatural. Boyle – I never like to be beholden to any of clergy. iv. Summary Boyle family leave in Dublin in a poor house. The father is lazy and drunk and has some pain in his legs that it is unknown. Mrs. Boyle, Juno, is the one who works and takes care of everything at home. Their son Johnny lost hir arm in the Civil War. Mary is being loved by Jerry, a very poor fellow. One day, an individual came to say Mr. Boyle that he is going to inherit a great fortune. The whole family is happy now. 10 7. ARNOLD WESKER (1932 – 2016) He tried to produce the angry young man, but it wasn’t accord to his personality. Women are cooking in all the plays. He came from a working-class Jewish family in London. In common with Osborne, his plays were realistic and lack of innovative techniques. In contrast, Wesker is a political activist and he put women in the center stage (intelligent, committed, empathetic and independent women). His family is reflected on his play The Trilogy: Chicken Soup with Barley (1958). Is a Jewish family in the East End from 1936 – 1956. Three photographs at decaded long intervals: Spanish civil War (1936), labour Party (1946) and Russian invasion of Hungary (1956). The Kahn family: Sarah, Harry and their children Ada (who is 14) and Ronald (an anagram of Arnold, the playwright himself). Roland links the tree plays in the Trilogy. The mother is the one who keeps the family together. The play presents political disappointment, Sarah is the one who will maintain her idealism to the end. The second act is 10 years later. Harry symbolizes this society; he doesn’t want to fight. He is a passive person. Concentrations camps in Russia coming to life. Stalling hate the Jewish. Roots, it is a symbolic play, Beatie represents the working class. The setting is extreme naturalist, the action takes place while cooking and other domestic chores are performed., is set three years later of last act of Chicken Soup with Barley. The protagonist ist Beatie a young woman from Norfolk, engaged to Ronnie Kahn (he never appears on stage). I’m Talking about Jerusalem, the play spans from the second act of Chicken Soup with Barley to the end of Roots. Ada Kahn and Dave decide to set up their own farm in Norfolk. An attempt to become rural socialists back to roots. 8. SHELAGH DELANEY (1938 – 2011) Described as an angry young woman, the only woman playwright in this movement. She hated to be considered Osborne’s female replica. She couldn’t study in university, but she was nineteen when she has her heat in her only play A Taste of Honey. Was shocking but also men didn’t respect her because she was a girl, young. She was unexperienced (they said). She fails the eleven class, a system that eleven kids have linguistic and math’s text if it passes, they go to a grammar school to get a degree. One of the most important representatives of the kitchen-sink drama. Influence by Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. 11 A Taste of Honey – mom serie. A reaction to the conservative handing of sexual matters in the drawing room dramas of the time. It deals with issues such as sexuality, homosexuality, teenage pregnancy, racism, single motherhood, alcoholism and even prostitution. The style is extreme naturalism – without technical innovations The issues and the protagonists (two working class women) were the real innovations No sentimentality; sense of humour and an incomprehensive hope for a better future. TEMA 5 THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD Theatre of the Absurd is an atemporal genre, it deals with philosophical things not political, it is about morality and the existence. It is Contemporary – Second World War, was a complete turnaround in the perception of humanity. The discovery of the concentration camps and the horrifying knowledge of genocide. The effects of the American atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Bringing to light what Humanity is capable of doing. The dominant feeling was one of extreme pessimism and the disappearance of old certainties. Hope gave way to despair in the ability of human beings to work together towards a better future. Existentialism: becomes the dominant philosophy God is more dead than ever – life has no meaning – real communication between human beings is impossible. 9. MARTIN ESSLIN Martin Esslin was a Hungarian-born British theatre critic and playwright best known for coining the term "Theatre of the Absurd" in his book in 1961. Esslin was a passionate of the avant-garde theatre such as Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco (French – The Maids) , Jean Genet (Romainian/French – The Chairs), and Harold Pinter. He was an influential figure in the development of modern drama and a key figure in the study of the Theatre of the Absurd. 12 Main characters: language as an obstacle to communication – crudest perform – philosophical themes – lack of coherence between word and action – meaningless speech – absence of plot – complicated sense of humor. 10. SAMUEL BECKET (1906-1989) – THE PRINCIPLE “THE LESS IS MORE” He was in Irish playwright, but he lived in France so it’s a France movement, also he wrote the plays in French. He worked as secretary for James Joyce, his major influence on interest in innovation and obsession with language. Beckett tried to imitate Joyce, but he realized that he would never be as good as Joyce. So, he tried to do it simple. During the German occupation of France, he joined the Resistance. Becket was an early postmodernism writer; he was a bridge between modernist generation and postmodernism. In 1945, he realized that he had to do theatre in his own way. That it was not about adding, it was about lack of knowledge, in taking away all the knowledge. He became awareness about his impotence, failure, and ignorance. Becket uses a very black humor, for example the characters are often mutilated, sick, old, waiting for death or unable to move (Happy Days). His plays designed to be experienced rather than intellectually understood.All his plays are tragicomedies. He was a perfectionist, he looking to exploit the comedy. Becket use ritual or sing to express what words couldn’t express. BECHETT IS FUNNY, the plot was a development to the worse. He is best known for his play “Waiting for Godot”, which is considered one of the most influential pieces of the 20th century. The popular characters were homeless people. The indefiniteness of the stage resembles a post-atomic set design. Endgame, the end of the chess game. There are four characters but only one can hardly move. Hamm is a man who lost his creative impulse, always gets distravting and don’t wifnish what he is doing. We don’t know if whar he tells is fiction or reality. Mutual dependence, often sadomashochist, influence of Genet’s the Maids. The comic couple, the parents in the bin, Nagg and Nell. Relevant elements: father- child relationship – infertility seeing as curse and blessing – mutual mistreatement between generations (Molloy). 15 The Dumb Waiter– influence by Waiting for Godoth. This play is too short, not even an hour. It is absurd but is easy to understand. Engaging play, that why it became very popular in actors. Waiting for Godot, one of the character Gus has a problem with his boots, it appears also in the Dumb Waiter. Gus beginning to question everything, it is something that a man doesn’t have to do. The use of silences. The attention is built of silences. This silence is full of meaning at the end there is a silence of two minutes each one looking at the other. Considered by most critics to be the best of the early period despite its brevity - it brings together all Pinter’s dramatic traits in a very concise form. Again a black comedy, the clownish behavior of the characters is more evident. Contrast between the deadly action about to take place and the characters’ absurd chatter - it enhances the comedy but adds to the atmosphere of menace. It has come to be read as a political fable against unquestioning obedience and lack of free thought. As Happy Days, The Caretaker, they are owners of a flight one of them is very violent. David is a homeless and Aston mess with him, and he said he can stay if he became a worker of the flat. Aston abuses Davis since the beginning. But this was all a game. Aston play to bring people, letting them think they can stay there and play with them, torture them. A triangle, the smallest unstable relationship in which shifting alliances can be formed and individuals left isolated. Another study of the theme of domination and subjugation. The play demonstrates the struggle for territory: who owns the house, who maintains it, who inhabits it, showing that humans are no better than animals at protecting territory. The most disturbing image is the brothers' final smile - this might be a game they often play. The Homecoming’s atmosphere is very crude and misogynist. It is a family, a father and three brother. One is a professor in Canada and then he gets married. Then go back to England to live with them. But they are like animals, gangster, they don’t have manners. The wife adapts the role of the mother and he have sex with the other two brothers. In the end, the husband can’t stand it anymore and go back to Canada, but the wife stays. And the wife become to work as a sex to father and the two brothers. The play remains as shocking and ambiguous today as when it was first performed. Interpretations have varied because of advances in feminist studies: some have seen it as the ultimate victimization of women, while others have read in it a fable of women's empowerment and freedom of choice. 16 TEMA 6 THE THEATRE OF THE 70s AND 80s THE 1970S AND 1980S London became the focus of the arts and fashion. Also, the recovery of the economy, the rise of the youth population, the spread of general education. May Revolution/French civil revolt in 1968 Civil rights protests in the US and the protests against the Vietnam War Cultural revolution: movements of the "hippie era“- the beginning of the hippie protest. The contraceptive pill began to be sold in 1960 - shift in morals from the lingering puritanical values of the Victorian era to the sexual liberation of the 1960s Second wave of feminism - abortion (The first wave was vote for women) Development of LGBT activism The beginning of the study of race, colonists, not as a freedom war. It’s the time of culture (race) and feminist studies First concerts - The Beatle 1961 - Rolling stones 1962 There was a common word democracy and collectivization - The collective, society. THE 1970S AND 1980S This generation, although innovative like the modernists, was not naive and questioned everything: morality, religion, the family, the establishment, bourgeois culture, justice, politics, etc Collectivization becomes a trendy. All this transferred to theatrical practice: collective creation the playwright loses importance. Different types of theatre: workers' theatre, feminist theatre (different from women's theatre), gay theatre and black theatre. In 1979, Margaret Thatcher, became Britain's first female Prime Minister (-1990). She was a problem of feminism, women discovered they didn’t want the same thing. Two kind of feminism: One, women have the same jobs without changing laws. Two, feminism is about changing society She represented individualism and she says that society doesn’t exist, you have to look for yourself. Positive growth and recessions, the latter were very hard on the working and middle class and unemployment rose alarmingly. State companies were privatised, financial and labour markets deregulated., National Health Service and state education began to be dismantled: “There’s no such thing as society” The gap between the upper and lower classes increased. Artists and writers made a kind of common front against the government. Yuppie culture; Yuppie: “a young person who lives in a city, earns a lot of money, and spends it doing fashionable things and buying expensive possessions” (Cambridge Dictionary) 17 12. EDWARD BOND (B.1934) – FREE VIOLENCE His early plays scandalized most critics and audiences for their crude depiction of violence on stage. They were not allowed to performance the play in theatre, they do the performance in a club because of the violence. - The Censorship disappears in the theatre. He is the late of the generation of in-your-face theatre. He uses violence, he explained that his style was naturalistic. Bond talk about the marginate society to make the audience reflect critically. Saved has achieved canonical status because it helped end censorship in theatre His theatre blends extreme left-wing naturalism with Artaud's theatre of cruelty, and Brechtian rationality. His intention was to make audience think, using farce to control the violence with ironic detachment, but the crudity of his images of violence produces an excess of emotion that blocks thought. The “aggro effect” is his own reworking of Brecht's alienation effect - societies united by aggression produce aggression. The degree of violence increased in each play because - “If I went on stoning babies in every play then nobody would notice it anymore” Saved (1965) – it was et in the deprived slums of South London, with young people living on the dole and with no hope of a better future. The characters speak in the South London dialect. At the core of the play, the scene of the baby stoned to death makes it difficult to engage with the rest of the play (tiran piedras al bebe). The final scene features the family sitting happily in the drawing room - Edward Bond describes the end of the play as "almost irresponsibly optimistic. Some critics believe that the family has been "saved" despite the degradation in which they live. Beneath the drama lies an Oedipal story turned comedy. The company was very proud. Because they have the highest number of people abandon the play. It’s a comedy, a farse. But it is not funny at all. He described the characters with a sense of superiority. The characters from the working class, don’t have empathy. The people who go to the theatre have studies and they don’t know this class, “the chavs”. The play was not revived for more than 25 years 20 "feminist theatre", regardless of its treatment of themes that deal specifically with women's issues. Churchill's theatre, while committed to the feminist cause, focuses on psychology rather than society. It presents politics from a subjective perspective and characterization is symbolic. She wrote about colonialism and capitalism, using history to talk about current problems Many of her plays were created in workshops with co-operative communities such as Joint Stock Theatre Group and Monstrous Regiment. Her style is not easy to label, as she uses different approaches even within the same play. TOP GIRLS – A PROBLEM PLAY Top Girls is a play written by Caryl Churchill. It explores the lives of women in the late twentieth century and the challenges they face in the pursuit of professional success. The play is set in the early 1980s in London, England. Is a women theatre because all the cast are female. However, the play addresses a wide range of topics, including gender roles, working class, female empowerment, and the struggle for recognition and success in the workplace. It is also a problem play because Churchill present the women dealing with social gender injustices in that time. The characters are all strong-willed and independent, while still being vulnerable and human. Through their conversations, the play examines the ways in which women can find strength in their own unique stories and identities. i. Summary It follows Marlene, a high-powered executive in a London employment agency, and a cast of other female characters from history and mythology (Pope Joan 9th, Isabella Bird 17th, Lady Nijo 19th and a modern working woman). Each woman offers a unique perspective on the struggles and rewards of being a woman in a male-dominated world. But Marlene has a child that she never takes responsibility, but her sister Joyce does. 21 ii. Themes Criticism of Thatchreite 80s - The play was written after Margaret Tatcher was eleceted first female prime minister. The most significant political event in this play is the election of Margaret Thatcher as prime minister of a Conservative government. Thatcher divided the feminist community, as the last scene of the play makes clear. She was a role model for ambitious women whose belief in equality meant equal access to all positions of work and power without changing patriarchal society. Many saw in her politics no connection to feminist ideals of equality, social justice and care Marlene – fan of Tatcher I don’t believe in class, anyone can do anything they want. THE DILEMA OF THE FEMINIST WHEN MARGARET TASTCHER BECAME PRIME MINISTER. That was breaking the glass. Feminist wanted a woman prime minister, but they didn’t want Margaret Thatcher. What Marline represent the idea of Margaret Thatcher, a woman that climb to the top stepping on others. What’s the point to getting to the top where is no top? That’s why it’s called top girls where they should be equal, because we are all women in the same level. Criticim of neoliberal feminism Neoliberalism – she is not gonna make it Marlene is the sister of Joyce. Joyce is unhappy she has to work an take care of Marlene child. Women and success (in a man’s world) Social class and inequality Rural area – joyce versus city – marlene Joyce accused Marlene for taking Angie from her. The main argument of the play is the moral basis of Marlene's work and material success, and its relationship to motherhood and, of course, to politics, on the assumption that “the personal is political”. Marlene's apparent lack of empathy is clearly related to her political decisions. The ending is rather bleak: what we see is that female emancipation for these women has come to mean the adoption of the aggressive and predatory values that have oppressed women for ever. 22 THE TROUBLES IN NORTHERN IRELAND (1969 – 1998) After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which partitioned the island, Northern Ireland entered into an escalation of conflict between loyal to the British government (loyalists/Protestants) and supporters of a unified and independent Ireland (republicans/Catholics). There was a civil war. Discrimination against the minority population of Gaelic descent: no access to basic resources such as housing and education and lack of fundamental civil rights. Late 1960s, the "Catholic" community began a campaign for their civil rights. In 1969, Protestant paramilitaries, with the help of the RUC, set fire to the homes of several Catholic families in the working-class neighborhoods of Belfast – this was the beginning of “The Troubles”. The British army was sent in to pacify the region, but they had a counterproductive effect Terrorism came from both sides of the conflict: UVF and UDA – Protestant paramilitary groups Provisional IRA and INLA – Republican paramilitary groups In the 1970s - a generation of intellectuals emerged who led the cultural life in the region and across the island Many came from the Derry area: poet Seamus Heaney, playwright Brian Friel, politician John Hume and academic Seamus Deane (Heaney and Hume received a Nobel Prize). Intellectuals on both sides of the conflict joined forces around what became known as the “Fifth Province”, an imaginary region from which to seek solutions to the entrenched political situation in the world of arts and literature. In 1980, Brian Friel and Belfast actor Stephen Rea founded a Derry-based theatre company, Field Day. They intended to create and produce plays dealing with the Northern Irish situation, which would premiere in Derry but then tour the island 15. BRIAN FRIEL (1929 – 2015) – TRANSLATIONS Born in Omagh, but his family soon moved to Derry. He began working as a teacher and writing short stories and radio plays – teachers are frequent characters in his plays. His first successful play, Philadelphia, Here I Come! fused the kitchen-sink drama with the drama of emigration –a character doubled in two made the play stand out in the traditional Irish theatre scene of the time. Considered the leading figure of Irish theatre in the second half of the century for the depth of his plays, the scope of the themes addressed, the complexity of the characters and the technical innovations, always subordinate to the content of the play. The first to use the technique of storytelling, which would become so popular in 21st century theatre, and also to employ music and dance to replace what words could not express. 25 16. SARAH KANE (1971 – 1999) She consciously wants to use cruelty to make the audience react. Like a shocked therapy – a strong emotional reaction using violence because of her obsession with wars (war of Yugoslavia). To humiliate Bosnian man who rape woman. For the first time we knew the enemies. She use this violence with this two ideas violence and critics the media using violence to make money that makes insensibility of the population(journalism). She graduated in drama from Bristol University and started writing straight away. She had struggled with severe depression throughout her youth but did not want to take her medication because she believed it numbed her and diminished the intensity of her feelings. War came to dominate her mind: “For me, there isn’t anything else to write about. It’s the most pressing thing to confront” (Sarah Kane) Her first play, Blasted, was the biggest scandal on an English stage in the 20th century, even more so than Edward Bond's Saved. Kane closely follows Artaud's ideas developed in the Theatre of Cruelty: “a theatre in which violent physical images crush and hypnotize the sensibility of the spectator” (Sarah Kane). The overwhelming list of atrocities presented on stage becomes numbing: male and female rape, cannibalism, masturbation, oral and anal sex, incestuous copulation, etc. are depicted in a naturalistic way, nude when necessary. Eating baby. Almost all the violence is based on sex and is intended to destabilize sanity, to liberate the subconscious, to function as shock therapy. There is always a glimmer of hope, and love is to be found in all her plays. Her language is poetic, her last and posthumous work was written in verse. 26 BLASTED – IN-YER-FACE Directly influenced by the news of the Balkan Wars of the 1990s (1992-1999), with their massacres, ethnic cleansing and rape used as a war weapon. It begins as a naturalistic play until the end of the second scene. With the arrival of the soldier, becomes a surrealist tableau (expressionism). It is an attack on the cynicism and moral relativism of the media and the way it makes society immune to violence. The play is divided into five scenes, all in the same setting: “the room of a very expensive hotel bedroom in Leeds”. As scene three begins, we see how the hotel has been hit by a mortar, and the naturalism of the early scenes “is exploded as surely as the hotel” The play is “about the destruction of naturalism”. The three characters are both victims and perpetrators, still, Cate represents hope, since, despite having been raped, she is still able to help others and fight against death The reviews it received at its premiere were savage but helped to elevate the play to mythic status. Evening Standard complained of its “sheer unadulterated brutalism”. i. Charachters Cate Ian, racist misogynist homophobic The soldier, Baby, died and ate by Ian ii. Themes Arouse publish consciousness Expressionism – inner emotions of the character Melodrama – centralizes in action and suspense – No es melodrama según la profe Themes Abusive Relationships (Ian and Cate) Atrocities of war (Soldier) – Raping, torture, cannibalism, los of humanity, illogicality of war 27 17. MARIN MCDONAGH He is English and Irish (at the same time he is not), his parents are Irish, but he born and grew up in England. He is an outsider, an exile in both worlds - growing up in an Irish neighborhood, surrounded by Irish relatives, but his Ireland was that of the outside observer. He draws on the particular English speech of the inhabitants of the west of Ireland in its convoluted tone and grammar and its inclusion of Gaelic words in its English language The influence of Harold Pinter mixed with the Irish kitchen sink drama of the Abbey Theatre produces a mixture of absurdist comedy and cruel melodrama, steeped in senseless violence. Behind the bright colors of the tourist guide's postcards, we find characters in which madness and violence lurk, carrying on dialogues in which violent deaths are a repeated theme. Nature is not comforting it is rain and mud and cold lakes in which people drown and animals are killed for no reason. Contemporary events appear in the plays, such as the Northern Irish Troubles and the abuse of children by leading members of the Catholic Church, which help to conjure up any false sense of nostalgia for a pastoral world. The Beauty Queen of Leenane is the most important, is the one that makes him famous. In-yer-face theatre because of the brutal language and violent actions, the way they treat each other is awful. Characters are devout to humanity. Is very funny until it turns sad. The way she was treatred as a migrant in England. 30 TEMA 8 - 21ST CENTURY THEATRE 21st Century ■ Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center (New York) on 11 September 2001, subsequent war in Afghanistan. ■ Invasion of Iraq in 2003 by the alliance formed by the US, the UK and Spain. Both in the UK and in Spain the invasion was strongly contested by intellectuals and the majority of the population. ■ Terrorist attacks in European capital cities, Madrid, London, Paris, Brussels, Barcelona ■ With the collapse of subprime mortgages in the US in 2008, the biggest economic crisis of recent years began, bringing with it mass unemployment and evictions ■ The European Union policy of massive austerity cuts exacerbated the dismantling of the welfare state and produced much social angst . ■ In 1992, the World Wide Web was created, and its rapid expansion followed ■ Migration, and thus multiculturalism, has transformed the population of major cities around the world ■ Climate crisis is beginning to be felt across the planet Theatre 21st ■ The novelty is the rise of female and racialised playwrights and the growing number of plays that deal with identity any kind of discrimination: sexism, racism, LGBTQ+phobia, migration, multiculturalism, ableism, etc. ■ Topics will tackle anything without reservation: child abuse, domestic violence, gender-based violence, drugs, death, alcoholism, Aids, mental disease, and so on ■ Documentary theatre, physical theatre, the mixture of puppets and humans and, in general, a complete mix of genres ■ “New Writing” exists as a kind of ideal that places the text (and the playwright) at the centre of the theatrical process, as opposed to Directors' Theatre, which seeks to experiment with all the elements that make up the theatrical experience. ■ Physically theatre – the movement. The actors know move a lot even they don’t know actually dancing they movement is really important NOW. DOCUMENTARY THEATRE – theatre based on reality (real favts9 – the bog of cats? Scorch – three real cases (documentary theater) – it is fiction but based on facts When the play is more important movement than words it is considering physical theater Ian Rickson was a primary teacher. Many playwrights and directors have been teachers before. 31 20. TANIKA GUPTA (B. 1963) Born in London to Indian parents. Beginning with radio plays, Gupta went on to write scripts for television and eventually for the theatre. She writes for a mixed, contemporary audience of different ethnicities, generations, social classes, genders, and places of origin, reflecting the composition of the British population today In her plays, British people, like Asians, Africans, Jamaicans or Americans, are forced to reconsider their idea of national, social and gender identity as they encounter their respective “other” Her theatrical style is traditional, with no technical innovations The common element in her plays is that they present the perspective of the excluded and the marginalised. ■ Sugar Mummies deals with sex tourism in Jamaica ■ Wah! Wah! Girls is a multicultural musical, in which Britain meets Bollywood while addressing cultural belonging and sexual identities ■ White Boy, in which the protagonist, Victor, a young black man with aspirations, is fatally stabbed for trying to defend one of his friends (a white boy), was a hit with London teenagers ■ Gladiator Games is a powerful documentary drama using original sources ■ The Empress presents the colonial interrelations between India and Britain 21. SIMON STEPHENS 1971 – MOST FAMOUS IN THIS CENTURY Born in Manchester, graduated at York University, he was a teacher in Edinburgh for a few years. The epiphany he had while watching the rehearsals implicated for him a new awareness of the process of theatre-making and of his role within that process as just one collaborator among many, getting away from the “New Writing” In his later plays, few stage directions are specified, and when they are, they are expressed in subjunctive: a character “might” perform an action, or “maybe” makes a certain move, deferring to the judgement of readers or interpreters (also used by Stacey Gregg). 32 Pornography signals the beginning of this departure; in it he attributes no character names to the speeches and exhorts the creative team to cut the play up and populate it with as many actors as desired. The ability to tackle different registers, themes and forms of writing. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time ■ Based on the eponymous novel by Mark Haddon ■ It has all the characters on stage at the same time ■ The play makes use of music and lighting to express Christopher's state of mind. ■ The story resembles a crime novel, but it is the excuse to show the personality of the autistic teenager. ■ The play manages to transfer to the stage the emotions that the novel creates in the reader. ■ It makes the audience understand and empathise with the protagonist, with the mother who abandoned him, overwhelmed by his autism, and with the father, who, although he has lied to Christopher about his mother, has always cared for him 22. DEBBIE TUCKER GREEN Born in London. She refuses using individualism like I in capital letters and her whole name appears really small in the plays. She worked as a stage manager for 10 years before turning to playwriting. Although her plays often revolve around physical abuse, she refrains from staging scenes of violence in order to avoid morbidity and voyeurism, but rather narrates the effects of this violence. Abuse is often presented in the form of dialogues and confrontations between victims and members of their families or communities who have evaded their responsibility by remaining silent witnesses. Her theatre invites us to consider the connection between abuse, witnessing and responsibility. ■ dirty butterfly has three actors on stage and requires them to be there all the time and the audience to surround them (theatre in-the-round)), so that physical barriers disappear and the audience is also witness to and responsible for the pain inflicted on Jo, the white woman abused by her husband