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Naturalism (theatre)
Naturalism is a movement in European drama and theatre that developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It refers to theatre that attempts to create an illusion of reality through a range of dramatic and theatrical strategies. Interest in naturalism especially flourished with the French playwrights of the time, but the most successful example is Strindberg's play ''Miss Julie'', which was written with the intention to abide by both his own particular version of naturalism, and also the version described by the French novelist and literary theoretician, Emile Zola. Zola's term for naturalism is ''la nouvelle formule''. The three primary principles of naturalism (''faire vrai, faire grand'' and ''faire simple'') are first, that the play should be realistic, and the result of a careful study of human behaviour and psychology. The characters should be flesh and blood; their motivations and actions should be grounded in their heredity and environment. The presentation of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Realism (theatre)
Realism in the theatre was a general movement that began in 19th-century theatre, around the 1870s, and remained present through much of the 20th century. It developed a set of dramatic and theatrical conventions with the aim of bringing a greater fidelity of real life to texts and performances. These conventions occur in the text, (set, costume, sound, and lighting) design, performance style, and narrative structure. They include recreating on stage a facsimile of real life except missing a fourth wall (on proscenium arch stages). Characters speak in naturalistic, authentic dialogue without verse or poetic stylings, and acting is meant to emulate human behaviour in real life. Narratives typically are psychologically driven, and include day-to-day, ordinary scenarios. Narrative action moves forward in time, and supernatural presences (gods, ghosts, fantastic phenomena) do not occur. Sound and music are diegetic only. Part of a broader artistic movement, it includes Naturalism and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drayman Henschel
''Drayman Henschel'' (german: Fuhrmann Henschel), also known as ''Carter Henschel'', is an 1898 five-act naturalistic play by the German playwright Gerhart Hauptmann. Unlike his 1892 play ''The Weavers'', Hauptmann focuses on the story's psychological rather than social dimensions.Jelavich (1984, 455). As with his 1902 play ''Rose Bernd'', the play charts the demise of an ordinary man who falls victim to circumstances beyond his control. As with many of Hauptmann's dramas, it ends with the main character's suicide. Plot Malchen Henschel is feeling sickly and feels she may die. She bandies words with Hanne, a gruff servant. Her husband enters, discussing his business as a drayman, carting goods from one place to another. Mrs. Henschel is jealous when she learns that her husband was kind enough to get Hanne's apron for her. If she dies, what would happen to Gustel, her baby daughter? Says Malchen: "One thing I tell you now- If I dies, Gustel dies along with me! I'll take her with me! ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerhart Hauptmann
Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann (; 15 November 1862 – 6 June 1946) was a German dramatist and novelist. He is counted among the most important promoters of literary naturalism, though he integrated other styles into his work as well. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912. Life Childhood and youth Gerhart Hauptmann was born in 1862 in Obersalzbrunn, now known as Szczawno-Zdrój, in Lower Silesia (then a part of the Kingdom of Prussia, now a part of Poland). His parents were Robert and Marie Hauptmann, who ran a hotel in the area. As a youth, Hauptmann had a reputation of being loose with the truth. His elder brother was Carl Hauptmann. Beginning in 1868, he attended the village school and then, in 1874, the Realschule in Breslau for which he had only barely passed the qualifying exam. Hauptmann had difficulties adjusting himself to his new surroundings in the city. He lived, along with his brother Carl, in a somewhat run-down student boarding house before fin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Weavers (play)
''The Weavers'' (german: Die Weber, Silesian German: ) is a play in five acts written by the German playwright Gerhart Hauptmann in 1892. The play, probably Hauptmann's most important drama, sympathetically portrays a group of Silesian weaving, weavers who staged an History of Silesia#Uprising of the Silesian weavers, uprising in 1844 due to their concerns about the Industrial Revolution. The play was translated into Yiddish language, Yiddish by Pinchas Goldhar in the 1920s, after which it became a favorite of the Yiddish stage. In 1927 it was adapted into a German silent film ''The Weavers (1927 film), The Weavers'' directed by Frederic Zelnik and starring Paul Wegener. A Broadway version of ''The Weavers'' was staged in 1915–1916. Plot summary Most of the characters are proletarians struggling for their rights. Unlike most plays of any period, as pointed out many times in literary criticism and introductions, the play has no true central character, providing ample opportunit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Creditors (play)
''Creditors'' ( sv, Fordringsägare) is a naturalistic tragicomedy by the Swedish playwright August Strindberg. It was written in Swedish during August and September 1888 in Denmark. It was first published in Danish in February 1889 and appeared in Swedish in 1890. It premiered at the Dagmar Theatre in Copenhagen in March 1889.Meyer (1991b), 118. It is seen as one of Strindberg's most powerful plays.Meyer (1991b, 119). Strindberg himself, writing in 1892, described it as his "most mature work." Characters *Adolph - an artist. *Tekla - a novelist, Adolph's wife. *Gustav - a teacher.Strindberg, August. Bjorkman, Edwin. Translator. ''Plays''. ''Creditors''. Charles Scribner's Sons. 1913. /ref> Plot This three-character play takes place in a parlor adjoined to a room in a seaside resort hotel. It begins with Adolph, an artist, sculpting a small nude female figure. With him is Adolph's new friend, Gustav, who has been visiting for a week and inciting changes in Adolph's life: A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
August Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty plays and more than thirty works of fiction, autobiography, history, cultural analysis, and politics during his career, which spanned four decades. A bold experimenter and iconoclast throughout, he explored a wide range of dramatic methods and purposes, from naturalistic tragedy, monodrama, and history plays, to his anticipations of expressionist and surrealist dramatic techniques. From his earliest work, Strindberg developed innovative forms of dramatic action, language, and visual composition. He is considered the "father" of modern Swedish literature and his '' The Red Room'' (1879) has frequently been described as the first modern Swedish novel. In Sweden, Strindberg is known as an essayist, painter, poet, and especially as a novelist an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Father (Strindberg)
''The Father'' ( sv, Fadren) is a naturalistic tragedy by Swedish playwright August Strindberg, written in 1887. It is about the struggle between parents over the future of their child; resulting in the mother, using her cunning manipulative skills, subduing and finally destroying the father. Plot Captain Adolph, an officer of the cavalry, and his wife, Laura, have a disagreement regarding the education of their daughter Bertha. Laura wants her to stay at home and become an artist, while Adolph wants Bertha to move into town and study to be a teacher. Adolph says that his decision is final, and that the law supports him, because, he points out, the woman sells her rights when she agrees to be married. The argument grows and becomes fierce. Laura, cunning & manipulative, suggests that Adolph may in fact have no rights in the matter. Laura lies to the family doctor that Adolph may be mad, because, as an amateur scientist, he thinks he has discovered life on another planet by lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-reformed Russian. ; ), usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. He received nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906 and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902, and 1909; the fact that he never won is a major controversy. Born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828, Tolstoy's notable works include the novels ''War and Peace'' (1869) and ''Anna Karenina'' (1878), often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction. He first achieved literary acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, ''Childhood'', '' Boyhood'', and ''Youth'' (1852–1856), and '' Sevastopol Sketches'' (1855), based upon his experiences in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Power Of Darkness
''The Power of Darkness'' (russian: Власть тьмы, Vlast′ t′my) is a five- act drama by Leo Tolstoy. Written in 1886, the play's production was forbidden in Russia until 1902, mainly through the influence of Konstantin Pobedonostsev. In spite of the ban, the play was unofficially produced and read numerous times. Overview The central character is a peasant, Nikita, who seduces and abandons a young orphan girl Marinka; then the lovely Anisija murders her own husband to marry Nikita. He impregnates his new stepdaughter, then, under his wife's influence, murders the baby. On the day of his stepdaughter's marriage, he surrenders himself and confesses to the police. Production history French theatre pioneer André Antoine staged ''La Puissance des Ténèbres''—a French translation of the play, by Pavlovsky and Oscar Méténier—in Paris at the Théâtre Montparnasse on 10 February 1888 to great acclaim. Constantin Stanislavski, the Russian theatre practitioner, had wante ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aleksey Pisemsky
Aleksey Feofilaktovich Pisemsky (russian: Алексе́й Феофила́ктович Пи́семский) () was a Russian novelist and dramatist who was regarded as an equal of Ivan Turgenev and Fyodor Dostoyevsky in the late 1850s, but whose reputation suffered a spectacular decline after his fall-out with ''Sovremennik'' magazine in the early 1860s. A realistic playwright, along with Aleksandr Ostrovsky he was responsible for the first dramatization of ordinary people in the history of Russian theatre.Banham (1998, 861). "Pisemsky's great narrative gift and exceptionally strong grip on reality make him one of the best Russian novelists," according to D.S. Mirsky. Pisemsky's first novel '' Boyarschina'' (1847, published 1858) was originally forbidden for its unflattering description of the Russian nobility. His principal novels are ''The Simpleton'' (1850), ''One Thousand Souls'' (1858), which is considered his best work of the kind, and ''Troubled Seas'', which gives a pic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Bitter Fate
''A Bitter Fate'' (russian: Горькая судьбина, ), also translated as ''A Bitter Lot'', is an 1859 realistic play by Aleksey Pisemsky.Banham (1998, 861) and Moser (1992, 273). Started in early 1859 in St. Petersburg, finished on 19 August and first published by ''Biblioteka Dlya Chteniya'' in November that year,Yeryomin, M.P.Commentaries to Горькая судьбина The Selected Works by A.F. Pisemsky. 1959 // А.Ф.Писемский. Собр. соч. в 9 томах. Том 9. Издательство "Правда" биб-ка "Огонек", Москва, 1959 the four-act play tackles serfdom in Russia and the social and moral divisions that it creates by means of a story that focuses on a provincial ''ménage à trois''. With the exception of Leo Tolstoy's ''The Power of Darkness'' (1886), it is the only major play to dramatise the experiences of peasants in the history of Russian realistic drama. It has been described as a masterpiece of the Russian the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
