3/5/13- Naturalism

Technology: Late 1800's
"Tromp l'oiel": triumph of the eye (Painting Effects)

Modern example of Tromp l'oiel

The Whip- melodrama with incredible scenery
-Cirque mentality for this time period


Naturalism

• "slice of life"- depicting life onstage
• "fourth wall" realism
• photorealism

Theatre Antoine

• Toulouse-Lautre, illustrator
• visual artists/famous painters involved in theatre
• part of Independent Theatre Movement
• Antoine's staging of Zola's La Terre (1900)

The Theatre Antoine, today

Subscription Theatre

• financial loophole- buy subscription to theatre
• Gerhardt Hauptmann
• wrote The Weavers- focused on poverty
• provide capital in advance; like start-up money

• August Strindberg- realistic and nonrealistic plays (Ghost Sonata)

Ghost Sonata

• "Pelican"- expressionistic makeup design
• Arthur Schnitzler- La Ronde
• 10 scenes- Men and Women shuffling characters (5men, 5women)
• like: David Hare's The Blue Room
• David Belasco's The Return of Peter Grimm (1907)

(insert: Bohemian Rhapsody instrumental performance)

Independent Theatre Movement

• If main theatres won't put on plays you want to put on, create an independent theatre company
• La Theatre Libre
• artistic programs- it is in itself a work or art
• Toulouse Lautrec
• Theatre du Grand Guignol: Blood, Guts & Nudity

Poster for Theatre du Grand Guignol

• Vieux Columbier

Early Departures of Realism

Symbolism: Stephane Mallarme

Maurice Maeterlinck

• Les Aveugles- raked painter's palette

Oscar Wilde: Art-for-Art's-Sake ("Aestheticism")

• because it's fun/witty and it relies on wit and humor
• wordplay / wordsmithery
• aristocratic background
• open homosexuality
• original Earnest: 1895
• not uncommon to leave theatre at midnight or later
• (video: Earnest on Broadway trailer)

J.M. Barrie and Peter Pan

• escapist entertainment
• Finkelstein's design for Peter Pan (it's amazing**)

Finkelstein's design for Peter Pan (it's still amazing)

George Bernard Shaw

• History of Criticism: Father of the Modern Critic
• distaste for Shakespeare
• Shaw's "Man and Superman"
• Most popular: Arms and the Man

Gilbert and Sullivan: Operettas

• shorter, livelier, comic operas
• Patience- makes fun of the Aestheticism movement
• Mikado
• Pirates of Penzance
• Patter Song, like a chase in a melodrama (Modern Major General video)