All the World’s a Stage: Modern European History and Dramatic Theatre from 1648-1992 - Adam Zanin

By adamzan
  • Period: to

    All the World’s a Stage: Modern European History and Dramatic Theatre from 1648-1992

  • The Reign of Terror

    The Reign of Terror
    Associated Primary Source Name: Brutus by Voltaire. Brutus, written in 1730, is a drama by the French philosopher and writer Voltaire. The drama follows the actions of famed Roman Brutus as he plots and executes the assassination of Julius Caesar. The drama was decreed to be performed three times a week during the Reign of Terror in the summer of 1793. This is significant as it propagated revolutionary ideals through its theme of liberalism and opposition of power.

  • Richard Brinsley Sheridan

    Richard Brinsley Sheridan
    Associated Primary Source Name: Pizarro: A Tragedy in Five Acts by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The 1799 tragedy of Pizarro by Sheridan recalls the life of the notable conquistador. The text is significant for opposing British imperialism and colonization. The play called attention to the evils of the British Empire and effectively communicated Sheridan's opposition of the government through the genre of melodrama.

  • The Government Inspector

    The Government Inspector
    Associated Primary Source: The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol. The 1836 play The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol slyly criticizes the Russian bureaucracy through social satire. The text is significant for helping to define Russian culture and identity through the arts. By focusing his play on a Russian municipality and their uniquely Russian struggles, Gogol gave importance to the Slavophile cause. The play itself became a strong piece of nationalist and Romantic literature.

  • Saint Joan

    Saint Joan
    Associated Primary Source: Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw. The 1923 drama Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw retells the trial and death of St. Joan of Arc. Written right after the end of the First World War, the play contains many themes of pacifism and internationalism, movements which Shaw participated in among his intellectual circles. The text is significant for communicating anti-war and anti-fascist sentiments that Shaw agreed with from the thinking elite to the common theatregoer.

  • Berlin Olympics

    Berlin Olympics
    Associated Primary Source: Frankenburger Würfelspiel by Eberhard Wolfgang Möller. Frankenburger Würfelspiel, one of the only successful Thingspiels, was commissioned by the Nazi party to be premiered at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The text is significant for rewriting the Thirty Years' War in an attempt to manipulate and redefine social memory. Apart from being a piece of Nazi propaganda, the play sought to create a unified Nazi community among common people in Germany.

  • Timeline Citations

    Voltaire, Josse Jean-François, and Marguerite Knapen. Brutus. Paris: 1730. Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, and August von Kotzebue. Pizarro: A Tragedy in Five Acts. Ecco. London: Printed for James Ridgway, 1799. Gogol, Nikolai Vasilievich, and Adrian Mitchell. The Government Inspector. Methuen Drama. London: Methuen Drama, 2001.

  • Continued Timeline Citations

    Shaw, Bernard, and Archibald Constable & Co. Saint Joan: A Chronicle Play in Six Scenes and an Epilogue. London: Constable and Company, 1924. Möller, Eberhard Wolfgang: “Frankenburger Würfelspiel”, Schwedter Tageblatt, August 3, 1934.