Types of Drama / Plays: Mixed
Resource: Wilson, Chapters 9 & 10
Other Serious forms:
Heroic Drama (189...)
Retains parts of tragedy --
heroic or noble characters
verse (heroic verse) -- where the kind of drama got its name -- heroic verse consists of "couplets" -- two rhyming lines of iambic pentameter -- and other elevated language
extreme situations
but differs from tragedy because:
usually has a happy ending
generally optimistic view, even if ending is sad
A. "melodrama" -- (189...)
Comes from "Music drama"
Good and evil are most clearly defined.
Evil is overcome by good.Entanglement of the protagonist in a series of circumstances threatening him or her; eventually rescued or escapes. Most tv series.
Many movies:
Wronged innocence is vindicated and evil chastised.
Like tragedy -- serious action.
Like comedy -- happy ending.
B. Domestic / Bourgeois Drama (189...)
Deals with "ordinary" people, from everyday life. Has in the last 150 years replaced both classical tragedy and "heroic" drama as the predominant form of serious drama
C. Tragi-Comedy (205...).
More complex than melodrama.
Ends happily, but raises complex issues of love, friendship, cowardice, courage, and death; societal norms, morality concealed identities, misinformation, and coincidence, last-minute revelations.
Many modern plays called tragi-comedy.
Able to send conflicting messages: laugh, but situation and ending can still be disquieting (MASH, Bonnie and Clyde)
D. Mixed Forms: Mingling of forms (some of these are not specifically mentioned in your textbook)
Expressionism (424-425)
Theatre of the Absurd (52...) -- Ionesco -- tragic farce, anti-play.
Ghelderode -- burlesque mystery, tragedy for the music hall.
Pinter -- has been called comedy of menace --associated with Theatre of the Absurd (348).
Theatre of Cruelty -- Artaud (83...)
The Epic Theatre of Bertolt Brecht (44...)
Biomechanics / constructivist of Meyerhold (151)
Futurism, Dada, Surrealism (418)
Two playwrights that Wilson & Goldfarb mention (365) as having roots in alternative theatre, David Mamet and Sam Shepard, have often been called "super-realism," "extra-realism," "magic realism."
This is indicative of modern times --
Uncertainty about nature of things and beliefs
Perhaps clearer labels could come, so that we can discuss more clearly, will become evident in the future.
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Last Modified: April 29, 2004