9Theatrical Genres

© T Charles Erickson

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Genre

Wherever theatre has appeared, there has been a tendency to divide it into categories or types, often referred to by the French term genre (JAHN-ruh).

The English author Horace Walpole wrote: “This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.”

Additional genres have developed: farce, melodrama, tragicomedy, and a number of others.

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Serious Drama

• What characterizes serious drama?– Thoughtful, sober attitude toward its subject– Audience intended to consider the material carefully– Emotional involvement in the passion and suffering of

the characters

• Serious dramatic forms include:– Tragedy– Heroic drama– Domestic drama– Melodrama

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Tragedy

• Asks what are the basic questions of human existence?

• Assumes the universe is indifferent—even cruel and malevolent—to human concerns.

• Two types of tragedy:– Traditional tragedy

• Periods of the past such as ancient Greece and Renaissance England

– Modern tragedy • Late nineteenth century to present day

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Traditional Tragedy

• Three major periods of tragedy:– Greece, fifth century B.C.

• Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides

– England, late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries

• Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kyd, Webster

– France, seventeenth century• Racine, Corneille

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Characteristics of Traditional Tragedy

• Tragic heroes and heroines– Extraordinary people—kings, queens, nobles

• Tragic circumstances– Universe determined to trap hero or heroine in a fateful web

• Tragic irretrievability– The point at which there is no turning back—the character

must face his/her fate

• Acceptance of responsibility– The capacity and willingness to suffer for actions

• Tragic verse– High language to address lofty concerns– Considered the only means by which such heights and

depths of emotion can adequately be expressed

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The Effect of Tragedy

• The contradictory responses to tragedy:– The cruelty and corruption of the world versus– The dignity of life and the beauty of art– The world is in chaos, but the creation of

perfectly shaped art.

– Pessimism versus optimism – the hero meeting fate with courage

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Modern Tragedy

• Characteristics:– Written in prose– Dealing with the

common man– The new tragic view

based on modern society

• Major Playwrights:– Ibsen, Strindberg, Lorca, Arthur Miller, Tennessee

Williams, Eugene O’Neill

• But is this new approach still tragedy in the purest sense?

Zane Williams/Madison Repertory Theatre

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Heroic Drama

• Serious drama with the characteristics of traditional tragedy, with two exceptions:– A happy ending– An optimistic world view

• Eastern traditions employ this style often e.g. The Ramayana

• Sometimes known as romantic drama• Western examples include:

– Electra (Sophocles)– Saint Joan (George Bernard Shaw)

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Domestic Drama

• The replacement of heroic drama, domestic (bourgeois) drama reflects modern society.– Domestic—indicates plays dealing with the family

or the home

– Bourgeois—indicates plays dealing with characters of the middle or lower classes

• The power of domestic drama lies in its ability to present the audience with characters that are easily recognizable and identifiable.

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Melodrama

• Eighteenth and nineteenth century popular theatre from greek“Music drama” or “song drama”

• Characteristics:– Audience is drawn into the action– Issues are clear-cut; there is a strong delineation of

right and wrong– Characters are clearly good or bad– Exaggerated action—living in danger on the edge of

calamity– Strong emphasis on suspense

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Melodrama Today

• Connections to film and television genres:– Westerns– Soap operas– Science fiction– Horror– Detective or spy stories

• Melodrama can also reflect the moral or political base of society.

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Comedy

• Approaches to dramatic material:– Comedy

• Humorous look at the world

– Tragicomedy • Blends comic and tragic together

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Comedy

•Why do we laugh?

•How many types of laughter exist?

•Comedy uses laughter to illuminate the problems of men, women, and the world.

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Characteristics of Comedy

• Suspension of natural laws– The evolution of the “slapstick”– Silent movies / cartoons / commedia dell’arte

• The comic premise– Turning accepted notions “upside down”– Lysistrata

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Techniques of Comedy

• Verbal humor – Pun—humorous use of words with the same sounds but

different meanings– Malaprop—word that sounds like the correct word but

actually means something quite different– Examples: the plays of Richard Sheridan and Oscar Wilde

• Comedy of character– Discrepancy or incongruity in the way characters see

themselves or pretend to be, as opposed to the way they actually are

– Examples: the plays of Molière• Plot complications

– Coincidences / mistaken identities– Examples: the plays of William Shakespeare

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Forms of Comedy

• Farce– Uses exaggeration on multiple levels– Qualities of mock violence, rapid movement, accelerating pace

• Burlesque– Focuses on physical humor, exaggeration, and vulgarity– Connections to variety theatre

• Satire– Focuses on intellect and moral issues – Use of wit, irony, and exaggeration to expose evil and foolishness

• Domestic comedy– Addresses family situations—similar to the “sitcom” form

• Comedy of manners– Focus on the foibles and peculiarities of the upper classes

• Comedy of ideas– Uses comedy to debate intellectual propositions

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TragicomedyThe relationship of tragicomedy to The relationship of tragicomedy to

comedy and tragedy:comedy and tragedy:

The view of the audience is a synthesis of tragic The view of the audience is a synthesis of tragic and comic—intermingled views of joy and and comic—intermingled views of joy and

sorrow…sorrow…

ExampleExample:: Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure

Comedy TragedyTragicomedy

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Modern Tragicomedy

• Major playwright of the tragicomic genre: – Anton Chekhov

• Uncle Vanya / The Seagull / The Cherry Orchard

• If we agree that the twentieth-century viewpoint is shaped by a tragicomedy sensibility, then:– What does this indicate about the world and

our society?– What viewpoints will shape the twenty-first

century?

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The Theatre of the Absurd

• Movement developed after WWII• Critic Martin Esslin coined the phrase:

theatre of the absurd– Plays focused on the alienation of man and

his plight within an illogical, unjust, ridiculous world

• Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot

– Absurdity located in both structure and ideas

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© Joan Marcus

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Characteristics of Absurdism

• Absurdist plots: illogicality– Cyclical structures– Lack of concrete beginning, middle, and end

• Absurdist language: nonsense and non sequitur– Irrational or debased language

• Absurdist characters: existential beings– Element of the ridiculous– Lack of history and specificity in the development of characters

Major Playwrights: Samuel Beckett / Eugène Ionesco

Edward Albee / Friedrich Dürrenmatt