Eighteenth Century Drama
Theater in England
- Early restoration plays consisted of Elizabethan rewrites, such as, King Lear, with happy endings.
- Marriages of convenience, tragic love, adultery were all common themes of the era
- Comedies often were satires of everyday life
17th & 18th Century Drama
Drama in Japan
French Tragedy & Comedy
Women in Theater
French Comedy
Drama in Japan
French Tragedy
- Females were banned from the stage in 1629, so men preformed kabuki plays
- The Kabuki theater started off from a woman named Okuni, who created the Kabuki dance
- Many prostitutes imitated the dance because of Okuni's popularity
- This dance then gained more popularity with sketches of contemporary life.
- Jean Baptiste Poquelin (1622-1673), also known as Moliere, was known for his control over the comedic stage
- King Louis XIV viewed a performance by Jean Baptiste, and liked it so much that he demanded more of his work
- Japan had tried to steal itself off the western world during the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1868)
- Actors and playwrights of this time were unaware and uninfluenced by western drama
- The middle class demanded entertainment to be portray their values and beliefs
- Prostitution was permitted along with various other entertainments that resembled prostitution
- Kabuki theater and puppet theater then broke out of its shell
- Critics following Aristotelian concepts of unities of time, place, character and action, believed plays must have one plot, a single action that takes place in one day, and a single setting
- these plays were static, cold, limited and dull
- The work of Jean Racine satisfied these critics (1639-1699)
- Phaedra is very passionate and moral play, centering on the love of Phaedra towards her stepson
- Unlike the English stage, the French stage always included female actors
The Restoration
Music
- A playwright of this time by the name of Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725) turned to puppet plays because kabuki plays were too popular.
- Chikamatsu made many plays including: history plays, domestic plays, and tragedies.
- A three stringed instrument called a shamisen played in the background that accented rhythms of speech and to keep the audience in motion of the play.
- Puppets created more special effects by creating expressions of emotion, thought, and action. This was what made the puppet theater expand in the early 18th century.
- After the death of Shakespeare, the theatre in England continued to prosper
- Religious and political conflict between King Charles I and the Parliament erupted, resulting in civil war and the closure of the theater for twenty years
- Parliament was influenced by Puritans
17th & 18th
Century Actor
- Claptrap's were conventional theatrical exaggerations that actors would use to draw forth the applause of the audience. Actors drew in the attention of the audience by over exaggerating horror and alarm
- For example, sudden kneeling was a conventional broad gesture that was used for dramatic effect. Using gestures like sudden kneeling, along with raising the voice and twisting the body, were tricks older actors would use.
- Some actors, like David Garrick(1717-1779), protested against these tricks to promote a quieter style of acting. He did use these tricks, but in a more natural manner, such as broad array of facial expressions
- He, alongside other actors, had the benefit of working in modern theaters where the apron was close to the pit
Charles II was crowned in 1660, and was sent to France during the civil war. There, he was exposed to French comedy and French classical tragedy. When he returned to England, he began building theaters
- Thomas Betteron (1635-1710) was well known for his performances of Hamlet
- Actors similar to Betteron were able to keep using the Shakespearean stage features and were admired for their fine features and strong but mellow voices. Their natural facial expressions would seem over exaggerated to people today
- During the Restoration, English women appeared on the English stage and were gaining popularity
- Nell Gwynne (1650-1687) was a famous actress during that age. She was married since the age of 15, but was also mistress to Charles II. She had specific comic parts made for her by John Dryden and was admired by the great diarist, Samuel Pepys
- Europe branched off the ideas of French neoclassicists
- David Garrick's theaters (1717-1779), often reworked French and earlier English and Italian drama which began Sentimental comedy
- Sentimental comedy manipulated the emotions of the audience to create sympathy for the characters
Theater on the continent: Neoclassicism
Restoration Plays
- Theater development began in Spain, England and France
- Competition between the three countries led to Pierre Corneille’s publishing Le Cid
- 1640’s, French had developed a polished and intellectually demanding approach to drama
- A neoclassic European movement attempted to copy and improve achievement of ancients
- Theater now focused on honor, moral integrity, self-sacrifice and heroic political subjects
- Often Colley Cibber (1671-1757) is given credit for sentimental comedy, based upon his play Love’s Last Shift
- Cibber was known for his poking satiric fun at society and it's pretensions
- The audience enjoyed bright, amusing comedies that criticized wayward youth, overprotective parents, dishonest financial dealings and social expectations.Their taste in tragedies shifted towards a self-sacrificial, moral hero that exemplified the values of the community.
- Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans held control of England after the Revolution in the 1640s
- During this time theatres were demolished and drama was banned outright
King Charles II and The Restoration
- Charles II returned to England in 1660, thus beginning the Restoration
- During his exile in France Charles II spent plenty of time in theatres