The age when everything changed

Group 14: Lucia Miranda - Martina Merlo - Christian Paduano

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Impaginare
Introduzione: obiettivo dell’essay
Como afecta realmente y que es lo que cambia

During the 20th-21st centuries, England underwent numerous changes that led to the development
of the society we know today. The two world wars left a great eridity in the minds of writers; they
not only shaped the themes, but mostly shaped the thinking of the pioneers of the literal as well as
theatrical movement. The war destroyed certainties and the theatre provided light-heartedness. A
fundamental role in these two centuries was played by the development of television, radio and
cinema which let some plays become popular. The 20th century is a fundamental period for English
drama, most of the plays in this genre were in fact produced in this period. The theatre was
characterised by realism, comedy, and poetic drama following in the wake initiated by the most
important playwright of the 19th century, the Norwegian Ibsen, and revived by George Bernard
Shaw. This essay will focus on the changes that have taken place in the theatre, the writers and the
innovations they have made.
This age has been confirmed as the century when the capital-labour conflict was most severe.
Whereas in the 19th century Britain had led the world, in this new period, due to social changes
caused by the two great wars, it had been unable to keep up with the new industrial developments.
The new industries shifted their focus to Germany and discontent arose among the population,
which turned into fear. The rigidity of the class system and its inequalities were brought up by a
liberal government led by Asquith (1908–1914), the rising number of socialists, and the
unemployed in a society where 1% of the population held 70% of the wealth. Moreover, in 1900,
the inability of the working class to stand for Parliament through the Liberal Party, which was the
main party of social reform in Britain at the time, led to the creation of the Labour Party in the early
20th century. In this climate of contrasts at the end of the century, women made their voices heard:
a new type of woman was born who fought for her rights and independence, arriving in 1928 with
the right to vote equal to that of men. At the same time, Ireland at this time was divided into two
parts: the northern part that was Catholic and was ready to fight against England for its
independence and the southern part that was Protestant and wanted to remain under English control.

The 20th century is one of the most vital and exciting periods in British drama, because it not only
produced more plays than any previous era, but also revolutionised traditional genres and expanded
the subject matter of the stage. The change and evolution of the new theatre was caused by the two
world wars, the need for national reassessment with the loss of Britain's imperial role, the effects of
technological advances and increasing urbanisation. The awareness of the theater's potential to
influence the public has raised questions about the function of drama, the nature of its reception,
and the relationship between form and content. These questions have fed the intellectual dynamism
and the artistic significance of British theater throughout the modern era. During the British Drama
period the major types of theatre were three:
1. Realism: it is a technical development instead of that of reality.
By combining realistic locations, clothes, everyday language, and dialogue, the realism style tended
to give the audience the impression that they are on stage.
2. Comedy: it is a genre of drama that has the purpose to amuse and entertain. Comedies
frequently feature misconceptions that result in hilarious circumstances. A happy marriage is a
common way for comedies to finish nicely.
3. Poetic Drama: Plays with distinctively poetic characteristics fall under the category of poetic
drama in literature. These are occasionally known as verse plays.
Many writers in this period devoted themselves to television work as well as to theatre, and at the
same time the popularity of writers and plays benefited greatly from it.

As the importance of theatre to Victorian and Edwardian culture became increasingly evident, the
theatricality of this new culture began to be recognised, challenging the conception of the period
defined by ideals such as sincerity, seriousness, and dedication to productive work in the 'real'
world. By learning more about Victorian and Edwardian theatre, one enriches not only one's
understanding of a previously underestimated phase in the history of theatre and theatrical literature,
but also of the complex social world that generated this new English drama and was in turn
informed and articulated by it. Regarding Edwardian theatre, it was born in London in the 20th
century and is a common representation of the years leading up to the First World War. The truth of
the situation was concealed by the representation of a popular romantic perspective after the
atrocities of the war.
This period is known as the Era of the New Drama and was one of the most important forms of
entertainment and people always preferred live concerts to the film shows of the Edwardian era.
There was a new figure called the actor-manager, the one who is kind to the audience and welcomes
them, an important figure in this theatre.
During this period as we have seen before the main topics were war and political issues that it has
bring to the new types of theatre called repertory and commercial.
Repertory theatre came to be used in Great Britain to refer to a significant initiative that was started
in the early 1900s to provide high-quality theatre to the entire nation. In places like Manchester,
Birmingham, and Liverpool, repertory companies were created, producing different plays every
week or two (known as "weekly rep"). The National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare
Theatre are two significant English organisations.
The split between the commercial theatre and the smaller, poorer, but more significant connected
with the repertory movement has been echoed and reiterated throughout the century. The idea that
theatre should serve as a medium for current concerns rather than being reserved for the upper and
middle classes and the working-class individuals were able to be on stage.
After World War II destroyed much of civilization, efforts were made to restore it. This led to a
reconsideration not only of the theatre's place in the new society, in competition with the
technological advances of radio, television and cinema (all of which offered theatrical
performances), but also prompted a search for a 'popular' theatre that would include all the
inhabitants of the neighbourhood, just as Greek and Elizabethan theatre has done .
In another, it culminated a new generation of experiments that had begun before to the war—
experiments that intended to push the audience in more extreme ways than ever before, erasing the
barriers between spectators and performers.
The most important playwright of the 19th century was a Norwegian named Ibsen. He investigated
the status of women in his realistic plays.
Since politics, religion, and sex were taboo topics in English theatre, many of them couldn't be
seriously discussed. After Wilde's trial, none of his brilliant and outrageous plays were performed.
Jones and Pinero, the most prominent dramatist of the day, imitated Ibsen in England and produced
more conventional and less challenging pieces. Ibsen's leading ally in England, George Bernard
Shaw, fought against censorship so that he could write on feminism, class, and war.

The strength of this new society, in which different social classes struggled, gave rise to new
movements and literary genres, and even resulted in a profound shift in the attitudes and behaviours
of authors. As mentioned before, this brought about great changes in the theatre also from a
television point of view by bringing out different texts. The great changes in the genre are the
mirror of a changing society that wants to overcome the shock of wars. The British Empire came to
an end because of the World Wars, which also led to a revision of the country's moral, social, and
political principles. A more liberal and tolerant culture that was unrecognizable from pre-war
Britain emerged in the second half of the 20th century as views shifted away from pre-War beliefs
and the experience of war thanks to technological innovations, marked a generation of young men
and their families. As 20th century ended in Modern Britain, society was becoming more
accustomed to its new cultural priorities, which sparked new conflicts with the government and
inequality.

The theatre of the absurd refers to the plays of several European and American playwrights who,
in the 1950s and early 1960s, considered the human condition to be fundamentally absurd and
meaningless. This type of theatre portrays the world as uncertain and unknown. However fervently
the characters work, their hustle and bustle serves to emphasize that nothing actually happens to
change their lives in any way. For this reason, there is little dramatic action, as this term is often
defined, in this type of theatre. Two lost beings, typically depicted as vagabonds, spend their days
waiting in Beckett's Waiting for Godot (1952), where narrative is abandoned in favour of a cyclical,
timeless quality. However, they are not sure what they are waiting for or if it will ever come. Epic
theatre, also known as German episches theatre, is a type of didactic performance that presents a
set of randomly connected scenes that avoid illusion and often pause the action to address the
audience with explanations, justifications or supporting evidence. It was a type of theatre that
focused more on politics, had a stronger connection to 'reality' and was less interested in the inner
emotional dramas that had long dominated the British stage. The theatrical philosophy and
technique developed in Germany since the 1920s by the playwright and director Bertolt Brecht is
now more frequently linked to epic theatre. Brecht's most famous work is Mother Courage.

The strength of this new society, in which different social classes struggled, gave rise to new
movements and literary genres, and even resulted in a profound shift in the attitudes and
behaviours of authors. As mentioned before, this brought about great changes in the theatre also
from a television point of view by bringing out different texts. The great changes in the genre are
the mirror of a changing society that wants to overcome the shock of wars. The British Empire
came to an end because of the World Wars, which also led to a revision of the country's moral,
social, and political principles. A more liberal and tolerant culture that was unrecognizable from
pre-war Britain emerged in the second half of the 20th century as views shifted away from pre-War
beliefs and the experience of war thanks to technological innovations, marked a generation of
young men and their families. As 20th century ended in Modern Britain, society was becoming
more accustomed to its new cultural priorities, which sparked new conflicts with the government
and inequality.