Modern Drama

[Trajan12]

Has anyone here really acquired a taste for it? I can't seem to. I can enjoy the classical drama, and my favourite is the Shakespearean and Marlowan blank verse drama of the Elizabeth/James era. But once you get to Ibsen and naturalism, I almost completely lose my taste for it. My hypothesis for why this is is that the language of naturalist/realist drama is closer to what is standard for the society of the day, whereas Shakespeare's language for example was considered artistic by theatre goers then. The language of a play, for me, is probably the main part of the aesthetic experience and modern drama just doesn't cut it there. The diction is ordinary and there is no rhythm. Minus these things, that basically makes it cinema with more technical and artistic restraints as far as I can tell.

 

[Narz]

Can you give me an example of modern drama?

 

[Fifty]

I agree that you lose some of the pure aesthetics of the beautiful language, but there are other aspects that I like. I really liked An Enemy of the People, for instance.

 

[aelf]

If you're complaining quite specifically about Ibsen's language, I suspect it's mainly because you're probably dealing with translations (as do I). Otherwise, there are good modern dramas and there are plenty of rubbish ones. I do think that Ibsen falls under the former, but maybe that's mainly because I'm not interested in dialogue as much as in directorial concept or mise-en-scène. Ibsen's naturalism inspires some pretty interesting sets and blocking.