Expressionism in Modern Selected Plays

Proposal prepared by
Sanaa Saeed Merza

How is The Glass Menagerie an example of expressionist

theatre?
How does Williams’ application of expressionistic techniques
develop the play’s themes?

Introduction
Expressionism is a modernist trend in drama and theatre that emerged in Europe (mostly
Germany) and the United States in the first half of the 20th century.
According to Ethan Morden, Expressionism is "a form of composition and performing
arts that makes the desires, fears and obsessions of the human mind both audible and
visible". The most well-known writers of the early 20th-century German theatre were
Georg Kaiser and Ernst Toller.

and expressionism had a significant impact on it. Among them were works by Sophie
Treadwell (The Machine), Eugene O'Neill (The Shaggy Monkey, Emperor Jones, and
The Great God Brown), and Elmer Rice (The Great God Brown) (The Addition
Machine).

A modernist movement of drama and theater known as Expressionism developed in

Europe (mainly Germany) in the early 20th century, and later this movement developed
in the United States. This movement includes some of the broader movement of
expressionism in art. In early 20th century German theater, there was a concentrated
expressionist movement, with Georg Kaiser and Ernst Toller being the most famous
playwrights. Through expressionist theater, expressionist writers visually acted out
scenes they saw and scenes they expected to convey their vision to a large audience.
Ethan Morden defines expressionism as "a form of composition and performing arts that
makes the desires, fears and obsessions of the human mind both audible and visible".
Most authors dealt with the topic of rebellion against the progress of industrialization.
Gus as an expressionist drama Georg Kaiser's Gas, written in 1912, published in 1916
and premiered in 1917, is a good example of this subject. Georg His Kaiser is one of the
most influential playwrights who promoted expressionism in Germany during World War
I. Gas is the story of a factory that operates in a democratic manner and employs profit-
sharing methods that were revolutionary at the time. Despite the owner's good intentions,
the factory (which produces the gas that powers all the machines in the district) explodes
and the owner, the son of a billionaire, faces a moral dilemma. Like any expressionist
artist, he wants change. The owner of the mill is the only one who doesn't want to rebuild
the mill that took so many lives, and who knows the meaning of a better life not ruled by
machines. Dissatisfied with their lives when they were ruled by the factory, the workers,
knowing no other way of life, want to rebuild the factory. It is this moral conflict of true
happiness that shows how hard industrialization has been, not only for artists, but also for
workers and humanity. Examples of expressionist drama The theatrical history of
expressionist theater sketched by Wedekind shrinks from the non-professional
performance of Oskar Kokoschka's Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen in Vienna in 1909 to
the early 1920s. His tenure was unwavering. The striking works of Walter Hasenklever's
Son (1916) in Prague and Dresden and Reinhard Sorge's The Beggar (1917) in Berlin
were original works. These dramas dramatized the struggle of generations who rejected
the father figure and expressed faith in the youth in messianic terms. The military defeat
of 1918 and the collapse of the old order are evident in expressionist dramas, such as
Fritz von Unruh's Eine Family, which premiered in 1919, and Ernst Toller's Werklerung.
brought great political power.
Expressionist drama flourished further in Germany, developing a form known as epic
drama in the works of Reinhard Johannes Sorge, Paul Kornfeld, Reinhard Johannes
Sorge, Ernst Toller, Paul Kornfeld, Fritz von Unruh, Brecht, and Piskator. I was allowed
to. In America, strong expressionist influences can be seen in the plays of Eugene
O'Neill, Elmer Rice, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller. Development of
expressionist theater By the mid-1920s, the genre had stabilized and inflation had ended.
Not only the playwrights mentioned above, but also Werfel, Wolff, Joest and others have
adapted their style to a less enthusiastic language. The unformalized unity of the
expressionist camp split into different ideologies. In the 1920s, American theater was
open to experimentation. Elmer Rice's Her The Adding Machine (1922) derided the
depersonalized villains of capitalism. John Howard Lawson used expressionism for
radical purposes in Roger Blumer (1922) and Processional (1925). A late example of
demagogue expressionism was Irwin Shaw's Burial of the Antimilitarist (1937). The most
prominent American model of Expressionism was Eugene O'Neill. In Emperor Jones
(1920) he staged a subjective vision. In The Hairy Ape (1922) he made dolls of
oppressors and oppressed people in class society. In All Gods Chill Go Wings (1924), he
depicted racial conflict in bold two-dimensional imagery. English playwrights were
unable to add much to the continental example, but some Irish writers took it more
seriously. 1984) was, above all, an Expressionist. Sean O'Casey's The Silver Tassie
became one of the pinnacles of Expressionist writing. Even the third act of Red Roses for
Me.
Expressionist drama is not concerned with its everyday life and reality. It is a completely
subjective and arbitrary representation of life. It often features dreamlike imagery, in
which action and language fuel the nerves. He shocked the audience by portraying the
character with unrealistic conflicts. It lacks a well-woven plot and the units of time,
place, and action are completely refuted, and through the work of Piscator and Brecht, it
creates an epic theater. The diversion also becomes sporadic and the grammar is often
violated and the sentences distorted and sometimes it also encounters a sudden lyrical
outburst and the spoken word becomes a scream. So there needs to be a new style there.
Playwright Paul Kornfeld advises: "Actor...don't behave as if the thoughts and words he
wants to express only arise in him when he reads them...Let him dare to stretch out his
arms and with a feeling of flight to say when he has never spoken in his life; that he is
neither an imitator nor does he seek his role model in a world, allow the actor:" These
plays could not be staged by conventional methods and a new advance in the art of
landscape painting was exhibited and this was only possible because of the close
connection between expressionism and in theater and the visual arts. The stage is
considered more of a space than a picture. The sets are staged in a very simple, angular,
distorted, wonderful way. Certain expressionist lighting techniques made an impact on
the cinema of the time. Expressionist dramatic style Expressionist TV series often
dramatize the spiritual awakening and suffering of the main characters and have been
called station dramas, modeled on episodic appearances about the suffering and death of
the protagonists. Jesus in the Church of the Cross, August Strindberg pioneered this form
with his autobiographical trilogy In Damascus (1898-1904). The plays often dramatize
the conflict against established bourgeois values and power, often personified by the
image of the Father. In Arnolt Bronnen's Parricide (Vatermord), the son stabs his
tyrannical father to death, just to fend off his mother's lustful actions. In expressionist
drama, speech is enhanced, whether extended and melodious, or truncated and
telegraphed. Director Leopold Jessner became known for his expressive works, often set
on steep, steady stairs (originally developed by Edward Gordon Craig), which quickly
became trademarks. your. Expressionism was briefly popularized on the American stage
in the 1920s, especially with plays by Eugene O`Neill (The Hairy Ape, The Emperor
Jones), Sophie Treadwell (Machinal). , Lajos Egri (Rapid Transit) and Elmer Rice. (Extra
machine) Under the influence of the political theater, elements of expressionism
flourished in the 1960s, and in the 1980s stage design borrowed heavily from it.
However, its definition is now losing ground and it is no longer criticized.