American Drama

 The historical, social and cultural context

o By 1915, Europe was in the middle of the First World War and America
was debating whether it should stay neutral. Eventually, President Wilson
persuaded the American Congress to declare war on Germany. America's
participation in the war and the important role it played in finalizing the
Treaty of Versailles that shaped post-war Europe marked its emergence as
a major world power.
o In the 1920s, new assembly-line manufacturing methods produced
American goods at cheap prices for mass consumption. The American
economy was going through a boom time, yet recent immigrants and black
Americans, especially in the Southern States, often lived in appalling
poverty. American corporations such as Ford and General Motors
distrusted trade unions and refused them recognition in the workplace.
There was a general 'Red scare' hysteria, and anarchists and communists
became the target of witch-hunts, which culminated in the notorious Sacco
and Vanzetti case. In 1921 these two recent immigrants, alleged to be
anarchists, were found guilty of murder on the flimsiest of evidence and
were executed six years later.
o The 1920s became known as the 'Roaring Twenties'. It was the Jazz Age,
the era of the 'flapper' (young women who flouted conventions), mass
spectator sports and the growth of the influence of the mass media,
including tabloid newspapers and radio. Yet, there was widespread
intolerance and racial violence, especially in the South. Fundamentalist
Christian sects thrived in the Bible belt of the mid-West and the teaching
of Darwin's theory of evolution was even banned in some states. The
Prohibition of Alcohol Act (1919) had banned the sale of alcohol, which
only resulted in the growth of illegal bars known as 'speakeasies' and the
domination of organized crime over illegal drinking.
 o Then, in 1929, the bubble of prosperity burst and the Wall Street Crash
brought economic chaos to America and the world. Unemployment rates
zoomed upwards, numerous banks failed, the value of most company
shares decreased with alarmingly and many companies collapsed. For the
next twelve years, until America entered the Second World War, the
country was battling against this 'Depression'. The 'American Dream' of
ever-increasing prosperity, the freedom to pursue personal goals allied to a
close community ethos, the pursuit of happiness, love and the closeness of
family ties, seemed to be just that: a dream.
o In 1932 Franklin Roosevelt and a Democratic administration were elected
on the promise of delivering a 'New Deal', which would get America back
to work and prosperity. The government invested in a system of public
works and gave loans and grants to help business get back on its feet.
Initiatives such as cash relief for the poor, the creation of jobs by building
houses, roads, bridges and public buildings, and the Tennessee Valley
Authority (to aid farming communities across seven states) were attempts
to turn the economic tide, but by 1938, there were still 11 million people
unemployed.
o Meanwhile in Europe, fascism had taken root in Germany and Italy: Adolf
Hitler and the Nazi Party had come to power in Germany in 1933, and
Mussolini's fascists had imposed a totalitarian regime in Italy.
o In September 1939, the Second World War started in Europe. Two years
later, after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour, America joined the war on
the side of Britain and its allies. America was now on a war economy and
its people went back to work.
 Modernism and expressionism in the arts
o During this period of great upheaval, most American artists viewed
American society with growing disenchantment, which led to their
alienation from the prevailing values of materialism and conformity.
Writers such as Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, T.S. Eliot and Dos
Passos became spokesmen for the 'lost generation', a term used to describe
 those who had been disoriented by their experience of the First World War
and who felt ill at ease in the midst of what they saw as the grossness and
callousness of the post-war world, with its emphasis on production and the
acquisition of wealth.
o Modernism as a movement in the arts had had an impact in Europe from
the 1880s on. Modernism grew out of this increasing alienation of artists
from mainstream society with its ever-increasing regimentation,
socialization, urbanization and consumerism. One of the essential
characteristics of modernism was opposition to these materialistic and
authoritarian aspects of modern society. Modernism seemed to advocate
escape from the encroachments of a mass society that required its citizens
to conform to a rigid work ethic. Not all modernists were on the left of the
political divide, however. Some, for example, the poets Ezra Pound and
T.S. Eliot, were politically conservative. American drama would produce
several major figures during this period, some of whom would be dubbed
'modernist' and who would reflect in their plays the turmoil of these years.
Dramatists would deal with new subject matter and themes, experiment
with form and language, apply innovative theatrical techniques, break
away from the straitjacket imposed by realism and create 'expressionist'
drama.
o Expressionism was a movement in painting at the beginning of the
20th century in which artists, rather than attempting to create a version of
'reality', created a highly personal vision of the world that included
distorted images symbolizing inner psychological states. Expressionism
also influenced the other arts and had a particularly strong influence on
German and Scandinavian theatre.
o Major dramatists: Eugene O' Neill, Elmer Rice, Maxwell Anderson,
Clifford Odets, Thornton Wilder, Lillian Hellman, William Saroyan
 1941-60: drama of turmoil and uncertainty: The historical, social and cultural
context
 o America emerged from the Second World War as the richest and most
powerful nation in the world. The economic problems of the Depression had
largely been solved by the war economy and, over the next fifteen years,
many - but by no means all - American citizens would enjoy a substantial rise
in their living standards. However, along with victory and this new affluence,
came several legacies from the war:
o Weapons of mass destruction had been use for the first time when
America dropped nuclear bombs on two Japanese cities in 1945.
o The Cold War with the Communist Eastern bloc countries began. A
Third World War seemed possible against the other 'superpower', the
Soviet Union.
o The Cold War brought widespread paranoia about internal 'Red'
subversion. The House Un-American Activities Committee started
investigating Communist infiltration into American life, and writers
came under particularly close scrutiny
o To many Americans in the post-war years, it seemed that the ideals and
policies of Roosevelt's New Deal were under attack from an extreme right-
wing conservatism.
o It was in this era of great American power and wealth, but also widespread
fear, paranoia and the rumblings of rebellion, that Arthur Miller and
Tennessee Williams would establish themselves as the leading dramatists of
their time. Through their plays, both would respond - albeit in very different -
to the confusions and turmoil of post-war American society
Drama:
o Great theatrical activity in the US in the 19th century – no movies, TV, or radio
o Every town of any size had its theatre or “opera house” in which touring
companies of actors performed.
o No significant drama was performed in this century, with audiences preferring
farce, melodrama, and vaudeville to serious efforts.
o The 1950s often regarded as a period of relative calm before the storm that broke
over American society in the 1960s and 1970s. American dramatists would
chronicle the maelstrom that America became in these decades
 The Influence of Europe: Psychology and Taboo Subjects
o European drama, which was to influence modern American drama
profoundly, matured in the last third of the 19th century with the
achievements of three playwrights: Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, and
Anton Chekhov. They were intent on representing life in a more realistic
style.
o Realism in the theatre emerged from a desire to reject excessive theatrical
artificiality. It represented everyday reality in a style that would seem
familiar to the audiences that came to see these new plays. The dramatic
language was meant to be close to everyday speech, the situations and
settings akin to the kind of social problems and milieus familiar to
contemporary audiences. Realism had an influence on the American stage
in this period, but mainly in terms of elaborately realistic sets.
o Ibsen, who was profoundly influenced by psychologists Sigmund Freud
and Carl Jung, tackled subjects such as guilt, sexuality, and mental
illness—subjects that had never before been so realistically and
disturbingly portrayed onstage (like in A Doll’s House and Enemy of the
People).
o Strindberg brought to his characterizations a unprecedented level of
psychological complexity (like in The Father and The Dance of Death).
o Chekhov shifted the subject matter of drama from wildly theatrical
displays of external action and emotions to the concerns of everyday life
(like in The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard).
o They presented characters and situations more or less realistically, in what
has been called the “slice-of-life” dramatic technique.
 Realism and Eugene O’Neill: Putting American Drama on the Map
o Realistic drama is based on the illusion that when we watch a play, we are
looking at life through a “fourth wall” that has been removed so we see
watch the action.
o Soon after the beginning of the 20th century, realism became the dominant
mode of American drama.
o Very soon after the little theaters off Broadway succeeded with realistic
plays (about 1916), Broadway adopted it, too.
o In 1916 and 1917, two small theatre groups in New York (the
Provincetown Players and the Washington Square Players) began to
produce new American plays.
o Provided a congenial home for new American playwrights like Eugene
O’Neill, whose first plays were produced by the Provincetown Players.
These small playgroups would produce any play, in any style, that
commercial theatre would not touch. These groups were the beginning of
modern American dramatic theatre.
o Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953) generally considered the first important
figure in American drama. Introduced into American drama the techniques
of realism earlier associated with Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov.
▪ American drama before O’Neill tended to be mild and sentimental,
rarely questioning the life and attitudes it depicted, and almost
never challenging the accepted traditions of the time.
▪ It consisted mostly of shows and spectacles staged by special
effects that dazzled audiences.
▪ Melodramas and farces were also written for famous actors.
Eugene
▪ O’Neill’s intense psychological plays were a radical departure
from the romantic (as in romanticism) convention of theater as
entertainment.
▪ Included speeches in common language or dialect, and
concentrated on characters on the fringes of society, where they
 struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately
slide into disillusionment and despair.
▪ O’Neill introduced or revived many techniques that have since
become staples of American theater: repetition of actions or
phrases to underscore dramatic intent; use of symbolic masks or
costumes (as in Greek theater); use of archetypal themes from
classical religion or mythology; and revival of the Elizabethan
devices of soliloquy (a speech made by one character onstage in
which he talks to himself or herself and reveals his/her thoughts
without addressing a listener) and aside (a piece of dialogue
intended for the audience and supposedly not heard by the other
characters onstage) to reveal a character’s inner state.
▪ O’Neill’s looked deeply into all his characters, producing portraits
of desire and frustration, delusion and failure.
▪ With his experimental flair, his enormous output (he wrote 32 full-
length plays and 20 one-act plays, as well as numerous
manuscripts), and his high aspirations for the theater, Eugene
O’Neill dominated American drama in his generation. His plays
were widely produced abroad, and he was the only American
playwright to have won the Nobel Prize for Literature (1936).
 Post World War II
o Two famous playwrights dominated post-World War II theater until the
1960s:
o The post-World War II years brought two important figures to prominence
in American drama: Arthur Miller (1915-2005) and Tennessee Williams
(1911-1983).
o They remain the dominant figures of the second half of the 20th century.
Miller and Williams represent the two principal movements in modern
American drama: realism, and realism combined with an attempt at
something more imaginative.
 o From the beginning, American playwrights have tried to break away from
the strict realism of Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov and to blend it with a
more poetic form of expression. Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949),
Williams’ The Glass Menagerie (1944) and Thornton Wilder’s Our
Town (1938) are some of the best examples of this style of writing.
o Miller’s best work, Death of a Salesman, is one of the most successful in
fusing the realistic and the imaginative; in all his other plays, however,
Miller is the master of realism.
o He is a true disciple of Henrik Ibsen, not only in his realistic technique,
but in his concern about the impact of society on his characters’ lives.
o In Miller’s plays, the course of action and the development of characters
depends not only on the characters’ psychological makeup but also on the
social, philosophical, and economic atmosphere of their times.
o Miller’s most notable character, Willy Loman Death of a Salesman, is a
self-deluded man, but he is also a product of the American dream of
success and a victim of the American business machine, which disposes of
him when he has outlived his usefulness.
o Miller is a writer of high moral seriousness, whether he is dealing with
personal versus social responsibility (as in All My Sons [1947]) or with
witch hunts past and present (as in The Crucible [1953]). He writes a
plain, muscular prose that under the force of emotion often becomes
eloquent.
 Tennessee Williams: Playwright of Our Souls
o Although Tennessee Williams was Miller’s contemporary, his concern
was not with social matters, but with personal ones.
o In play after play, he probed the psychological complexities of his
characters, especially of his female characters: Amanda and Laura in The
Glass Menagerie (1944), Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire (1947),
and Alma in Summer and Smoke (1948.). In Williams, naturalism finds its
proponent.
 o In contrast to Miller’s spare, plain language, Williams’ writing is delicate
and sensuous, often colored with lush imagery and evocative rhythms.
o Miller’s characters are, by and large, ordinary people with whom we
identify because they are caught up in the social tensions of our times.
o Williams’ characters are often women who are lost ladies, drowning in
their own neuroses, but somehow mirroring a part of our own complex
psychological selves.
o In the works of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams, we see the two
strongest strands in American drama: pure realism, and realism blended
with an imaginative, poetic sensibility.
In 1962:
 Edward Albee’s production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolfe?
 Influenced by Absurdist European playwrights such as Samuel Beckett and
Eugene Ionesco
 In the mid-19th century, realism in drama was conceived as a revolt against crude
theatricalism. With Albee, there was a revolt against realism itself, and a move
toward more theatricalism, with its emphasis on stage effects and imaginative
settings.