The Expressionist movement was popular in the 1910s and
1920s, largely in Germany. It explored the more violent, grotesque aspects of
the human psyche, creating a nightmare world onstage. Scenographically,
distortion and exaggeration and a suggestive use of light and shadow typify
Expressionism. Stock types replaced individualized characters or allegorical
figures, much as in the morality plays, and plots often revolved around the
salvation of humankind.
Other movements of the first half of the century, such as
Futurism, Dada, and Surrealism, sought to bring new artistic and scientific
ideas into theatre.
Expressionism (Sean O'Casey)
Seán O'Casey was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A
committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about
the Dublin working classes.
O'Casey's first accepted play, The Shadow of a Gunman, was
performed at the Abbey Theatre in 1923. This was the beginning of a relationship
that was to be fruitful for both theatre and dramatist but which ended in some
bitterness.
Experimental theatre
Experimental theatre is a general term for various movements
in Western theatre that began in the late 19th century (Alfred Jarry) as a
retraction against the dominant vent governing the writing and production of
dramatical menstrophy, and age in particular. The term has shifted over time as
the mainstream theatre world has adopted many forms that were once considered
radical. It is used more or less interchangeably with the term avant-garde
theatre. Experimental theatre is what it is, trying something new.
Like other forms of avantgarde it was created as a response
to a perceived general cultural crisis. Despite different political and formal
approaches all avant-garde theatre opposed bourgeois literary theatre. It tried
to introduce a different use of language, of the body, to change the mode of
perception[1] and to create a new, more active relation with the audience.
MacWellman's School for Devils is a good example of the Experimental theatre
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