Naturalism
man belongs entirely to the order of nature &
doesnot have a soul or any other connection with
a rel. or spiritual world;
man is merely a higher order animal whose
character & fortunes are determined by the
forces of heredity & environment;
he inherits personal traits & instincts (esp.
hunger & sex)
he is subject to socioeconomic forces of the
family, class & milieu.
Reaction agst. Romanticism (flights of
imagination & excesses of emotion)
Res - Ltn ‘thing’. Interest in facts including
psychological facts.
Interest in the material world.
agst. miracles (chance, coincidence),
supernatural, utopias, fairytale ends;
for proper character development, real scientific.
Hero - everyday: butchers, bankers etc.
focus on the bourgeoisie - the dominant class.
Average person - aesthetic interest.
scientific determinism => man’s physiological
nature more important than moral qualities; all
beings natural & within the pale of scientific
investigation; Nature knowable - regularity,
unity, wholeness. Attempt to relate character-
study to environment & time.
Drama
Ibsen (1828-1906) - Doll’s House(1879)
Ghosts(1881)
Chekhov (1860-1804) - Cherry Orchard
Strindberg(1849-1912)- Miss Julie
Father
1853 - gaslights
1860s Box set (germany)
1880 - use of electric lights
1889 - darkened auditorium
(Irving) Macbeth
1898 - Moscow Art Theatre (abode
of naturalists)
directors : Stanislavsky
conventions:
slice of life
Illusion. Drama running as history
keyhole/4th wall => no interaction between actor
& audience
BOX SET VS. ELIZABETHAN THRUST
wood & canvas flats (agst. curtains earlier)
space: bourgeiosie => narrower contact with the
world. battles inside the house - respectability,
money, competition.
Epic Theatre
Man not just a subject but also an agent
Critique of middle class notion of progress
Naturalistic theatre upholds status quo – weapon
of the middle class.
All contemporary acts for the middle class,
Brecht - questioning of accepted norms
Look at and through difficult and contradictory
aspects of self and reality.
Theatre can take place of school and mass
communication, epic seeks to break that
Scientific outlook (not m c science)
Facts are all social facts
Anti – naturalism (empathy=> empathy with the
middle class, illusion=> illusion of mc values)
Anti – romance
Shakespeare and Greek drama – dual
relationship. Against contemporary empathetic
representations of above drama. BUT own drama
spectacle based. Alienation important, actor must
represent self acting (eg) Macbeth, decadence of
Macb and age must also be reflected in the
performance.
Anti- expressionism but also influenced by its
techniques.
Important return of pleasure and entertainment:
hegemonic middle class takes itself too seriously.
Major influence of MARX:
History a record of change=> man can change
the history / world
“Dramatists of the world have interpreted the
world, now’s the time to change it”.
Empathy gives way to critical distance
Understand and change our reality, stranglehold
of the middle class (Althusser and Ideology).
Directors: Piscator
conventions:
alienation / verfrumdungs effect =>
between actor and his performance and between
audience and performance (2nd the crux):
Breaking the illusion
Songs: break narrative, asking another set of
actors to sing
Dance / choreo that breaks the narrative
Geste - important: social. Physical appearance,
curses, flattery. Follows from social roots of
character
Wanted Lights on in the auditorium, to avoid
audience is a state of illusion.
Naturalism
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Actor: empathise / identify with character.
Everything has to be explained within the
performance.
Revolving stage against Box set / proscenium –
borrowed from contemporary bars where his
plays were often performed, scene changes as
you revolve the stage.
Return of performing in a circle / ring

Actor: as activist, critical distance from the

character (Alienation – effect). Breaking the
illusion. Importance of observation.

Perspectives on Natism: Internationalism. (Notions of nationalism / state

are notions of the hegemonic middle class and
Contemporary bourgeiosie - derision; ‘too are supportive of that class).
critical & serious’; refusal to look within;
Reviews - Zola, “a sewer rat,” Ghosts “drains of
society”; acceptance with intelligentsia - theatre
for study vs. for entertainment.

Decline - “pure’ naturalism was short-lived.

over-deterministic. what was revolutionary
became stale.
Modernist critique - Facile; assumes a stable
world that doesnot exist for the modernist;
singular (not pluralist enough); committed;
Modernism breaks down all the assumptions of
naturalism & moves towards Existentialism &
Surrealism.

Our intervention - study of & focus on social

problems; corruption, compromise; focus on
family & its problems not lost relevance for us.
preferable to later “objective” movements like
Existentialism, Surrealism & Theatre of the
Absurd.

Epic theatre

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