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Piper Loebach

Fadi Skeiker

Exploring Style

8 September 2020

Naturalism and My Installation

Naturalism seeks to present an accurate version of reality onstage. It is heavily based on

scientific methodology, specifically Charles Darwins’ theory of natural selection. Much like

Darwin, Emile Zola (one of theatrical naturalism’s biggest contributors) believed that human

circumstance was a result of heredity and environment. Naturalism is also heavily influenced by

Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. Freud, Marx, and Darwin differed in their specific beliefs but

they all theorized that humans at the mercy of some sort of extrinsic circumstance, as opposed to

their own free will.

In general, plays with naturalistic elements typically feature characters that come from

lower classes and hold very common jobs. They usually take place in urban settings that are very

regular–such as a subway car or a kitchen. Sets are highly detailed and designed to accurately

replicate real life. It is common to see a stage filled with props that create the essence of a real

room, even if the majority of those props are never touched during the play. Naturalistic plays

are also generally pessimistic and feature subjects that were previously unmentionable on such a

large scale.

Another defining characteristic of naturalism is the lack of individuality it showcases.

Zola used the term “human beasts” to illustrate the idea that humans were not viewed as

individuals, but instead part of a larger group. Naturalistic works also depict time onstage
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moving identically to time in real life. Three hours of stage time in a naturalistic play is

equivalent to three hours in reality.

This was one of the greatest inspirations for my naturalism installation. I created a sand

pendulum designed to represent time moving in a realistic fashion, as it would in real life. This is

a crucial characteristic of naturalism and one that I

immediately felt inclined to include in my installation. I

chose to place the pendulum I created in my living room,

leaving it exactly as it already looked. Naturalism seeks

to recreate very human spaces onstage and I wanted to

represent this in my installation as well. It is likely that a

naturalistic set would have just as much detail as the

background of my installation did–a pair of earbuds, a

stack of books, a tissue box, random pen, and more. The

final result was a photo and video that encapsulated very real time passing in a very real space.

(video included in separate file)