Knowra Modern drama Modern drama Modern drama is theatrical writing and performance developed from the late nineteenth century onward that challenged inherited forms and subjects through realism, experimentation, and new social concerns.
Realism (theatre) : A theatrical approach that depicts recognizable social life through plausible characters, settings, and speech. It made ordinary domestic life and contemporary social problems central subjects of modern plays.
Henrik Ibsen : A Norwegian playwright whose works include A Doll’s House and Ghosts. His plays made social conflict and psychologically complex characters central to modern drama.
Théâtre Libre : An independent Paris theatre founded by André Antoine in 1887 to stage naturalist drama. Its productions helped establish a venue for the new naturalist stage.
Epic theatre : A theatrical form associated with Bertolt Brecht that interrupts dramatic illusion to encourage critical judgment. It offers a deliberate alternative to the emotional absorption of conventional realist drama.
A Doll’s House : Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play about Nora Helmer’s marriage and decision to leave her household. Its ending made female autonomy and the limits of marriage subjects of public debate.
Naturalism (theatre) : A theatrical movement that presents human behavior as shaped by heredity, environment, and social conditions. It pushed modern drama’s realistic depiction toward the forces determining characters’ lives.
Anton Chekhov : A Russian playwright known for The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard. His understated scenes and unresolved conflicts reshaped modern dramatic action.
Independent Theatre Society : A London subscription theatre founded in 1891 to produce plays excluded from commercial stages. It brought controversial European and British modern drama to English audiences.
Theatre of the Absurd : A postwar theatrical movement portraying existence through illogical situations, repetition, and failures of communication. It turns modern drama’s formal experimentation toward the instability of meaning and action.
The Seagull : Anton Chekhov’s 1896 play about artists, unrequited love, and frustrated ambition. Its subdued action exemplifies the modern shift from plot twists to ordinary psychological change.
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