Expressionism was a movement in drama and theatre that principally developed in Germany in the early decades of the 20th century. It was then popularized in the United States, Spain, China, the U.K., and all around the world. Similar to the broader movement of Expressionism in the arts, Expressionist theatre utilized theatrical elements and scenery with exaggeration and distortion to deliver strong feelings and ideas to audiences.

History

The early Expressionist theatrical and dramatic movement in Germany had

Dionysian The Apollonian and the Dionysian are philosophical and literary concepts represented by a duality between the figures of Apollo and Dionysus from Greek mythology. Its popularization is widely attributed to the work ''The Birth of Tragedy'' by Fr ...

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

, and

Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his car ...

philosophy influences. It was impacted by the likes of German poet

August Stramm August Stramm (29 July 1874 – 1 September 1915) was a German war poet and playwright who is considered the first of the expressionists. Stramm's radically experimental verse and his major influence on all subsequent German poetry has caused h ...

and Swedish playwright

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 p ...

. '' Murderer, the Hope of Women'' by

Oskar Kokoschka Oskar Kokoschka (1 March 1886 – 22 February 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright, and teacher best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the Viennese Expres ...

, written in 1907 and first performed in Vienna in 1909, was the first fully expressionist drama. Expressionism was then explored and evolved in Germany by a multitude of playwrights, the most famous of which being Georg Kaiser, whose first successful play, ''

The Burghers of Calais ''The Burghers of Calais'' (french: Les Bourgeois de Calais) is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin in twelve original castings and numerous copies. It commemorates an event during the Hundred Years' War, when Calais, a French port on the English Cha ...

'', was written in 1913 and first performed in 1917. Another highly influential German Expressionist playwright was Ernst Toller who had his first successful play, ''Transformation'', premier in Berlin in 1919. These German playwrights and many others explored and evolved expressionist theatre and drama until the movement faded in popularity throughout Germany by 1924. In the 1920s theatrical expressionism became very popular in the United States among audiences and artists alike.

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature, literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama tech ...

, although widely known for his realist dramas, was the first playwright in the United States to experience success with an expressionist piece. O'Neill's ''

The Hairy Ape ''The Hairy Ape'' is a 1922 expressionist play by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. It is about a beastly, unthinking laborer known as Yank, the protagonist of the play, as he searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the rich ...

'' was the first fully expressionist play written by an American playwright, it premiered in 1922.

Elmer Rice Elmer Rice (born Elmer Leopold Reizenstein, September 28, 1892 – May 8, 1967) was an American playwright. He is best known for his plays ''The Adding Machine'' (1923) and his Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of New York tenement life, '' Street Sce ...

gained notoriety shortly after with the premier of his expressionist play ''

The Adding Machine ''The Adding Machine'' is a 1923 play by Elmer Rice; it has been called "... a landmark of American Expressionism, reflecting the growing interest in this highly subjective and nonrealistic form of modern drama." Plot The author of this play t ...

'' in 1923. These playwrights and many others within the United States went on to write quite successful expressionist plays including Lajos Egri's '' Rapid Transit (play)'', first premiering in 1927, and Sophie Treadwell's ''

Machinal ''Machinal'' is a 1928 play by American playwright and journalist Sophie Treadwell, inspired by the real-life case of convicted and executed murderer Ruth Snyder. Its Broadway premiere, directed by Arthur Hopkins, is considered one of the highp ...

'', first premiering in 1928. Expressionism in theatre and drama has also experienced success in China and Spain. Notably, '' The Wilderness (play)'' by

Cao Yu Cao Yu (, September 24, 1910 — December 13, 1996) was a Chinese playwright, often regarded as one of China's most important of the 20th century. His best-known works are ''Thunderstorm'' (1933), ''Sunrise'' (1936) and ''Peking Man'' (1940). ...

and '' Yama Zhao'' by

Hong Shen Hong Shen (; 31 December 1894 – 29 August 1955) was a Chinese playwright, film director and screenwriter, film and drama theorist, and educator. He is considered by drama historians as one of the three founders of Chinese spoken drama, togethe ...

were frequently produced in the 1920s and 1930s in China. Expressionism in Chinese theatre has recently experienced a resurgence in popularity since the 1980s. In Spain Ramon Valle-lnclan's '' Esperpento'', which was first produced in 1925, was very similar to German expressionist plays of the same decade.

Theatrical elements

The most defining characteristics of Expressionism in the theatrical context were the emphasis on uncovering intense emotions and the failure of societal systems that have been overlooked. Commonly, Expressionist theatre critiqued the government, big business, the military, family structures, and sexism. Expressionism shifted emphasis from the text of pieces to the physical performance and highlighted the director's role in creating a vehicle to deliver theirs and the playwright's thoughts and feelings to audiences. This shift also reflected a greater faith in audiences' ability to receive a playwright's message on their own without complete textual guidance. In early German expressionist theatre, the protagonists were commonly created to representations of variations on the New Man, one who was neither too meek or too headstrong, who was intelligent, and who was unafraid to act on their morals. Structurally, Expressionism in theatre was often characterized by episodic scenes or station dramas (Stationendramen) which were modeled after the Stations of the Cross. ''Machinal'' by Sophie Treadwell utilized nine episodes to tell the story of Helen Jones instead of scenes. Expressionist theatre also commonly adopted very general or simple names for the characters in the plays, like A Man, Woman, or in ''The Adding Machine'', "Mr. Zero"

Design characteristics

Expressionist theatre had very different scenic design compared to the theatrical movements that came before it like naturalism and romanticism. Set pieces and props were typically used sparingly with much more emphasis on creating striking sound and light design. When scenery was used, it was typically very symbolic and was a purposeful exaggeration or understatement of the setting. Expressionist scenic design focus was more on aiding in the delivery of a scene's meaning versus a mere representation of setting. Emil Pirchan, Ludwig Sievert, and Ernst Stern were very influential expressionist scenic designers.

Famous works and playwrights

*Georg Kaiser: ''The Burghers of Calais'' (written in 1913, first premiered in 1917), '' From Morn to Midnight'' (written in 1912, first staged in 1917) * Ernst Toller: ''Transformation'' (premiered in 1919), ''Man and the Masses'' (written in 1920, first performed in 1923) *

Reinhard Sorge Reinhard Sorge (29 January 1892, Berlin, German Empire – 20 July 1916, Ablaincourt, France) was a German dramatist and poet. He is best known for writing the Expressionist play '' The Beggar'' (''Der Bettler''), which won the Kleist Pr ...

: ''The Beggar'' (first performed in 1912) *

Walter Hasenclever Walter Georg Alfred Hasenclever (8 July 1890 – 22 June 1940) was a German Expressionist poet and playwright. His works were banned when the Nazis came to power and he went into exile in France. There he was imprisoned as a "foreign enemy". H ...

: '' The Son'' (premiered in 1914) *

Hans Henny Jahnn Hans Henny Jahnn (born Hans Henny August Jahn'';'' 17 December 1894 – 29 November 1959) was a German playwright, novelist, and organ-builder. Personal life Hans Henny Jahn was born in 1894 in Stellingen, one of Hamburg's suburbs, and was the s ...

: ''Pastor Ephraim Magnus'' (first staged in 1917), ''Coronation of Richard III'' (first premiered in 1922) *

Arnolt Bronnen Arnolt Bronnen (19 August 1895 – 12 October 1959) was an Austrian playwright and director. Life and career Bronnen was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of the Austrian-Jewish writer Ferdinand Bronner and his Christian wife Martha Bronner. B ...

: ''Parricide'' (first performance in 1922), ''Bird of Youth'' (premiered in 1922) *Eugene O'Neill: ''The Hairy Ape'' (first performed in 1922), ''

The Emperor Jones ''The Emperor Jones'' is a 1920 tragic play by American dramatist Eugene O'Neill that tells the tale of Brutus Jones, a resourceful, self-assured African American and a former Pullman porter, who kills another black man in a dice game, is jailed, ...

'' (first staged in 1920), ''

The Great God Brown ''The Great God Brown'' is a play by Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature, literature. His poetically titled plays were amon ...

'' (premiered in 1922) *Sophie Treadwell: ''Machinal'' (first premiered in 1928), ''O Nightingale'' (first performed in 1925) *Elmer Rice: ''The Adding Machine'' (premiered in 1927), '' Street Scene'' (first opened in 1929) *Lajos Egri: ''Rapid Transit'' (first premiered in 1923), ''Believe Me or Not'' (first staged in 1933) Beil, Ralf; Dillmann, Claudia (2011). The total artwork in expressionism: arts, film, literature, theatre, dance, and architecture, 1905-25 / edited by Ralf Beil and Claudia Dillmann. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz. p. 512. ISBN 9783775727136.

References

{{reflist Modernist theatre Theatrical genres

History

Theatrical elements

Design characteristics

Famous works and playwrights

See also

References