9 theatrical genres © t charles erickson copyright © mcgraw-hill education. all rights reserved....
TRANSCRIPT
9Theatrical Genres
© T Charles Erickson
Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Genre
Wherever theatre has appeared, there has been a tendency to divide it into categories or types, often referred to by the French term genre (JAHN-ruh).
The English author Horace Walpole wrote: “This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.”
Additional genres have developed: farce, melodrama, tragicomedy, and a number of others.
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Serious Drama
• What characterizes serious drama?– Thoughtful, sober attitude toward its subject– Audience intended to consider the material carefully– Emotional involvement in the passion and suffering of
the characters
• Serious dramatic forms include:– Tragedy– Heroic drama– Domestic drama– Melodrama
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Tragedy
• Asks what are the basic questions of human existence?
• Assumes the universe is indifferent—even cruel and malevolent—to human concerns.
• Two types of tragedy:– Traditional tragedy
• Periods of the past such as ancient Greece and Renaissance England
– Modern tragedy • Late nineteenth century to present day
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Traditional Tragedy
• Three major periods of tragedy:– Greece, fifth century B.C.
• Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides
– England, late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries
• Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kyd, Webster
– France, seventeenth century• Racine, Corneille
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Characteristics of Traditional Tragedy
• Tragic heroes and heroines– Extraordinary people—kings, queens, nobles
• Tragic circumstances– Universe determined to trap hero or heroine in a fateful web
• Tragic irretrievability– The point at which there is no turning back—the character
must face his/her fate
• Acceptance of responsibility– The capacity and willingness to suffer for actions
• Tragic verse– High language to address lofty concerns– Considered the only means by which such heights and
depths of emotion can adequately be expressed
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The Effect of Tragedy
• The contradictory responses to tragedy:– The cruelty and corruption of the world versus– The dignity of life and the beauty of art– The world is in chaos, but the creation of
perfectly shaped art.
– Pessimism versus optimism – the hero meeting fate with courage
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Modern Tragedy
• Characteristics:– Written in prose– Dealing with the
common man– The new tragic view
based on modern society
• Major Playwrights:– Ibsen, Strindberg, Lorca, Arthur Miller, Tennessee
Williams, Eugene O’Neill
• But is this new approach still tragedy in the purest sense?
Zane Williams/Madison Repertory Theatre
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Heroic Drama
• Serious drama with the characteristics of traditional tragedy, with two exceptions:– A happy ending– An optimistic world view
• Eastern traditions employ this style often e.g. The Ramayana
• Sometimes known as romantic drama• Western examples include:
– Electra (Sophocles)– Saint Joan (George Bernard Shaw)
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Domestic Drama
• The replacement of heroic drama, domestic (bourgeois) drama reflects modern society.– Domestic—indicates plays dealing with the family
or the home
– Bourgeois—indicates plays dealing with characters of the middle or lower classes
• The power of domestic drama lies in its ability to present the audience with characters that are easily recognizable and identifiable.
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Melodrama
• Eighteenth and nineteenth century popular theatre from greek“Music drama” or “song drama”
• Characteristics:– Audience is drawn into the action– Issues are clear-cut; there is a strong delineation of
right and wrong– Characters are clearly good or bad– Exaggerated action—living in danger on the edge of
calamity– Strong emphasis on suspense
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Melodrama Today
• Connections to film and television genres:– Westerns– Soap operas– Science fiction– Horror– Detective or spy stories
• Melodrama can also reflect the moral or political base of society.
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Comedy
• Approaches to dramatic material:– Comedy
• Humorous look at the world
– Tragicomedy • Blends comic and tragic together
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Comedy
•Why do we laugh?
•How many types of laughter exist?
•Comedy uses laughter to illuminate the problems of men, women, and the world.
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Characteristics of Comedy
• Suspension of natural laws– The evolution of the “slapstick”– Silent movies / cartoons / commedia dell’arte
• The comic premise– Turning accepted notions “upside down”– Lysistrata
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Techniques of Comedy
• Verbal humor – Pun—humorous use of words with the same sounds but
different meanings– Malaprop—word that sounds like the correct word but
actually means something quite different– Examples: the plays of Richard Sheridan and Oscar Wilde
• Comedy of character– Discrepancy or incongruity in the way characters see
themselves or pretend to be, as opposed to the way they actually are
– Examples: the plays of Molière• Plot complications
– Coincidences / mistaken identities– Examples: the plays of William Shakespeare
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Forms of Comedy
• Farce– Uses exaggeration on multiple levels– Qualities of mock violence, rapid movement, accelerating pace
• Burlesque– Focuses on physical humor, exaggeration, and vulgarity– Connections to variety theatre
• Satire– Focuses on intellect and moral issues – Use of wit, irony, and exaggeration to expose evil and foolishness
• Domestic comedy– Addresses family situations—similar to the “sitcom” form
• Comedy of manners– Focus on the foibles and peculiarities of the upper classes
• Comedy of ideas– Uses comedy to debate intellectual propositions
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TragicomedyThe relationship of tragicomedy to The relationship of tragicomedy to
comedy and tragedy:comedy and tragedy:
The view of the audience is a synthesis of tragic The view of the audience is a synthesis of tragic and comic—intermingled views of joy and and comic—intermingled views of joy and
sorrow…sorrow…
ExampleExample:: Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure
Comedy TragedyTragicomedy
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Modern Tragicomedy
• Major playwright of the tragicomic genre: – Anton Chekhov
• Uncle Vanya / The Seagull / The Cherry Orchard
• If we agree that the twentieth-century viewpoint is shaped by a tragicomedy sensibility, then:– What does this indicate about the world and
our society?– What viewpoints will shape the twenty-first
century?
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The Theatre of the Absurd
• Movement developed after WWII• Critic Martin Esslin coined the phrase:
theatre of the absurd– Plays focused on the alienation of man and
his plight within an illogical, unjust, ridiculous world
• Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot
– Absurdity located in both structure and ideas
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© Joan Marcus
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Characteristics of Absurdism
• Absurdist plots: illogicality– Cyclical structures– Lack of concrete beginning, middle, and end
• Absurdist language: nonsense and non sequitur– Irrational or debased language
• Absurdist characters: existential beings– Element of the ridiculous– Lack of history and specificity in the development of characters
Major Playwrights: Samuel Beckett / Eugène Ionesco
Edward Albee / Friedrich Dürrenmatt