Theatrical Groups As A Form Of Social Protest In The American Depression.
What is particular about the American theatre in the twentieth century is that it can be classified according to a time sequence, in clear-cut decades – especially in the first part of the century – each conveying a particular development and representing a new step in the course of this art in America. This time-sequence classification is not wholly inescapable, but it will be necessarily useful for the understanding of this theatre, without disregarding or underestimating the possible overlapping of periods, schools and theatrical experiments. Such is the particularity of this social art.
In this respect, the Thirties, the period of our concern, makes no exception to this rule. Being particular in itself, it was also preceded by a no less particular era. The Twenties witnessed a flourishing of theatrical groups, such as the Theatre Guild, elaborating large repertories of national and international plays. However, such groups could not stand for real schools, giving birth to real actors or playwrights. They were like business firms – in this time of Success – concerned solely with marketing their products. So by the end of the Jazzy Age, expressionist techniques were modified by the Depression years. And Freud yielded place to Marx.
1. The Fervent Years
The Fervent Years, the Depression, the Black Years, the Red Decade, or even the Leftist Decade are some of the epithets used – or, at times, misused – to design the particular 1930s in America. This was no « time for comedy », nor for mere artistic experiment with symbolism and expressionism, nor for detached Freudian speculation on the individual and his/her neuroses.
The Thirties were rather a time of social protest, and for the young playwrights they were a time of commitment. ‘What’s the use of writing pretty novels about ladies and gentlemen?’ thought the young writers of 1935. The 1920s became a dream, remembered at first with bitterness for their...
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