Second wave: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 14:58, 15 June 2012

"School" of playwrights working in the 1960s and 1970s, influenced by sociopolitical changes.

Stage Censorship and Students' Revolt

Until 1968 the representation of violent, blasphemous and sexual improper scenes was censored by the Lord Chamberlain. After this law was abolished young playwrights had more freedom and could show previous taboos. But it took quite a while until Parliament agreed to do without the Lord Chamberlain's office. The decision-making process was fuelled by three famous plays and one famous theatre scandal: the play was Edward Bond's Saved (1965), which features a scene in which a baby is stoned to death, and hence could only be shown as club performance. The other two plays are John Osborne's A Patriot for Me (1965) (featuring homosexuality) and Bond's Early Morning (1968) (censored for irreverent depictions of Queen Victoria and her family).

Fringe Theatre

This form of theatre emerged around 1968 and functions as an alternative to the traditional theater because the plays were performed on small stages in the suburbs, basements and factory buildings. This form also influenced the legitimate stage because the fringe theatre created many new talented playwrights [who??], that brought the nearness to the audience and the openness for experimental elements and themes, from the intimate and personal stage on the big stage.

Before the emergence of the fringe theatre, there were almost exclusively male playwrights dominating the English drama scene. After the establishment of this new form, women in the theatre reached more prestige and dramatists like e.g. Caryl Churchill could experiment with gender roles and other "difficult" subjects. In Cloud Nine (1979) for example she showed postmodern permutation of gender roles and debunked the connection between the British colonial mentality and sexual oppression.

References

Innes, Christopher. Modern British Drama 1890-1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Englische Literaturgeschichte. ed. Hans Ulrich Seeber. 4th ed. Stuttgart/Weimar: J.B. Metzler, 2004.

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 == Stage Censorship and Students' Revolt ==
-Until 1968 the representation of violent, blasphemous and sexual improper scenes was censored by the [[Lord Chamberlain]]. After this law was abolished young playwrights had more freedom for their original intentions and could show the previous taboos.
+Until 1968 the representation of violent, blasphemous and sexual improper scenes was censored by the [[Lord Chamberlain]]. After this law was abolished young playwrights had more freedom and could show previous taboos. But it took quite a while until Parliament agreed to do without the Lord Chamberlain's office. The decision-making process was fuelled by three famous plays and one famous theatre scandal: the play was Edward Bond's ''Saved'' (1965), which features a scene in which a baby is stoned to death, and hence could only be shown as club performance. The other two plays are John Osborne's ''A Patriot for Me'' (1965) (featuring homosexuality) and Bond's ''Early Morning'' (1968) (censored for irreverent depictions of Queen Victoria and her family).
-[[Eward Bond]], for example, created a non-naturalistic and political drama. His "surreal fantasy, Brechtian parables, stripped-down realism, Shakespearean revisionism or Restoration parody, the historical epic and even opera librettos" (Innes, p. 157) were not only new themes in these days but also showed his experimantal and influencing style. In ''[[Saved]]'' (1965), one of his major plays, there was a "unusual degree of intellectual consistency" (Innes, p. 157).
 == Fringe Theatre ==
-The situation of the "workers, the minorities and the homosexuals" were characteristic for the [[fringe theatre]]. This form of theatre emerged around 1968 and functions as an alternative to the traditional theater because the plays were performed on small stages in the suburbs, basements and factory buildings. This form also influenced the legitimate stage. [how??]
+This form of theatre emerged around 1968 and functions as an alternative to the traditional theater because the plays were performed on small stages in the suburbs, basements and factory buildings. This form also influenced the legitimate stage because the fringe theatre created many new talented playwrights [who??], that brought the nearness to the audience and the openness for experimental elements and themes, from the intimate and personal stage on the big stage.
-Women in the theatre reached more prestige and dramatists like e.g. [[Caryl Churchill]] could experiment with gender roles. In ''[[Cloud Nine]]'' (1979) for example she showed "postmodern permutation of gender roles" and debunked the connection between the British "colonial mentality and the sexual oppression" [source??]. [is Churchill considered Second Wave? I don't think so. Please check]
-== Electronic Media ==
-The last factor that could be categorized into the'' Second Wave'' was the close correlation of the English drama and the electronic media. This form of media was not only a way to reflect the plays critically but also to use it as element within the play e.g. to show film sequence on stage. [This is usually not seen as part of the Second Wave, but of "postdramatic theatre"]
+Before the emergence of the fringe theatre, there were almost exclusively male playwrights dominating the English drama scene. After the establishment of this new form, women in the theatre reached more prestige and dramatists like e.g. [[Caryl Churchill]] could experiment with gender roles and other "difficult" subjects. In ''[[Cloud Nine]]'' (1979) for example she showed postmodern permutation of gender roles and debunked the connection between the British colonial mentality and sexual oppression.
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 References
-''Englische Literaturgeschichte''. ed. Hans Ulrich Seeber. 4th ed. Stuttgart/Weimar: J.B. Metzler, 2004. p. 392-394.
+Innes, Christopher. ''Modern British Drama 1890-1990''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
+''Englische Literaturgeschichte''. ed. Hans Ulrich Seeber. 4th ed. Stuttgart/Weimar: J.B. Metzler, 2004.