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Futurism and Dada brought many new components to theatre in the Modernism Era, and changed how man plays were produced. Futurism engaged more in confrontation with the audience, and had the speed and energy of the machine age. It also took the length of a full play, and compacted it into 1-2 minutes. Dada on the other hand, replaced logic and contained chance and sound poems.
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Expressionism came about in Germany in around 1910. It a lot of the time had a dark fantasy mood to it, as it turned humans into machines and altered human spirit. It always made the situation at hand nightmarish, and the acting was known to be "intense and violent" (Cash, 2012). One of the most prevalent expressionistic plays was "A Dream Play" by August Strindberg, in which the transitions in the play were confusing, and characters transformed into other characters' bodies.
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Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright and theatre director, whose style of works was very inspirational for playwriters around the world (DramaClasses.biz). He exposed many of the flaws in theatre at the time, some of these including the lighting being unmasked, musicians being visible, and the absence of a front curtain. Brecht was also known for making his works political, further explaining his critical personality.
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The Federal Theatre Project happened during the Economic Depression in the 1930’s, and was the first time that the national government compensated theatre. At the most, the Federal Theatre Project employed 13,000 people in 31 different states (Becker, 2002). The works in this project also were uncensored adult theatre, which would later cause some controversy. The FTP also pushed for social reform and change in the US during those hard times.
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Thornton Wilders’ “Our Town” was a very popular play that debuted in the uprise of American Theatre. It used very different techniques that were borrowed from the Chinese. It focused a lot more on costumes rather than the scenery of the play, and also often used Pantomimed props. In a New York Times article that was published at the time, Brooks Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize winner, said the play was “one of the finest achievements of the of the current stage” (Gallagher).
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“The Good Person of Setzuan” is a play written by Bertolt Brecht, and it's a story about three Gods coming to look for their definition of a “good person”. They find a nice prosititute named Shen Te, who is extremely taken advantage of. She eventually has had enough of this and disquises herself as her male cousin. Shui Ta, the male cousin eventually takes over and then “he” is accused of murdering Shen Te. Ultimately Shen Te could not win in the situation as the Gods left without a resolution.
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After World War 2, many Europeans questioned their truths and values, creating a theory called existentialism. This theory further explored the question of truth, values and morals. A big name in this time period was Jean-Paul Satre, and he did not believe in a God or moral codes. Another large figure of this time was Albert Camus. He believed that the human condition was “absurd” and that standards are to be determined by one’s own self.
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America took a very modernistic approach to theatre after WWII, where there were people with many different perceptions of the “correct approach. Modified realism was still the main approach, but elitists preferred avant garde. Psychological realism was the dominant acting style, and it produced many great works. Some of these include Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible, Death of a Salesman”, and Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a hot tin Roof”, a well renowned play.
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Absurdist drama came about in the 1950's and was closely correlated with Albert Camus’ idea of the human condition being “absurd” (Britannica). The type of works emerged in France, and steered away from the cause-effect relationships that had been present in previous types of works. Some works of this type include Eugene Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros” and Samuel Beckett's “Waiting for Godot”.
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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was written by Tennessee Williams, and was one of the first plays to be structured in three acts. It focuses on three characters (Maggie, Brick, and Big Daddy) and throughout it reveals many cases of deception and lying between the characters. They have different conflicts with each other in the different acts, which explains the three act setup.