final Flashcards
(20 cards)
the Weimer republic
Germany becomes a republic in 1919, called the Weimar Republic.
It lasts from 1919-1933.
This era in Germany is noted for…
Political instability
Increased workers’ rights
Improvement to social welfare system
Berlin in particular was known for openness in politics and social issues
Experimentation & flourishing of the arts
By 1923, there was a full-blown inflation crisis.
one dollar was worth 48,000 marks. By the end of the year, one dollar was worth 4 trillion marks.
The value of money changed so rapidly that workers needed a shopping bag to carry home their wages.
At its worst, 50 million marks would only buy you a single turnip.
Faith in the republic and the regular way of doing things evaporated.
A giddy euphoria gripped the country: why bother to work hard and save your wages when they’re worthless the next day? Why not party all night?
the golden twenties
The “Golden Twenties” began in the inflation crisis.
It was a time marked by giddiness and delirium that was centered in Berlin and continued after the inflation crisis ended in November 1923.
Berliners sought escape in amusmang, or amusement: cabarets, movies, music, strip shows (called “artistic dancing”) and dancing halls thrive.
Prostitution and drug use was rampant.
Criminal gangs thrived. There was a burst of artistic activity.
Clubs of all kinds thrived in Berlin in 1920’s.
You could literally find any kind of club you wanted.
Homosexuality was far more open than it had ever been.
Gender roles were questioned.
movies during the 20
During the war, people had escaped hardships by flocking to the movies.
After the war, Berlin became Germany’s Hollywood: German film production came second only to that in the US.
Films were so popular that by 1920, there were twenty seats for every thousand Berliners.
This increased over the next decade.
Mountaineering films were very popular, such as Die Weisse Holle von Pitz Palu (staring Leni Reifenstahl) from 1929.
Metropolis (left) from 1927 was a ground-breaking science fiction film that has influenced such films as Blade Runner by Ridley Scott (director of Alien and Gladiator.)
Der Blaue Engel (right, or The Blue Angel) made Marlene Dietrich a star. Made in 1930, it was about the previous decade in Berlin. A cabaret singer Lola-Lola seduces and ultimately destroys a distinguished professor.
art during the 20
1920’s Berlin also became a hub of innovation in the visual arts, responding to experimentation with their own style.
Art was seen as a way to take over society, to battle social injustice, and to achieve a new Gesamtkultur, a new totality of culture and “uniting of art and life” to realize a utopian society.
Artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Georg Grosz, and Mac Beckmann all exhibited in Berlin at this time.
One of the most popular artists in Berlin was Heinrich Zille, who chronicled the city’s ordinary people and every day life with compassionate humour.
He was called the “street urchin of art,” and “Daddy Zille” and to those who knew Berlin before the Nazis, his sketches were seen as an inseparable part of that time.
theatre during the 20
There were about three dozen theatres in Berlin alone.
Some of the most famous directors gained fame around the world, including Max Reinhardt and Erwin Piscator.
They experimented with design and form.
They considered theatre not just mere entertainment, and not just art, but an essential force in human life.
Piscator and Brecht both wanted to turn theatre into a weapon of revolution
Brecht was to become Berlin’s biggest theatre star.
Brecht’s first big hit was Die Dreigroschenoper or The Threepenny Opera.
It premiered in 1928 and was an adaptation of John Gay’s 1728 Beggar’s Opera, and with new music by Kurt Weill.
One critic called it “Rubbish. Junk. Irrelevant.”
But it was a huge hit.
It was adapted into a film in 1931.
father comes home from the war
Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts 1, 2 and 3 is not by Brecht - it’s by a contemporary American writer, Suzin-Lori Parks
first produced in 2014, it is set during the American Civil War and tells the story of an enslaved man, Hero, who makes a deal with his owner: if he goes to war with him and if the Confederacy wins, his owner will set him free
there is a strong possibility that in taking this deal, Hero is being duped by his owner
it is in part an adaptation of the Odyssey
It also borrows strongly from Brecht’s Epic theatre.
Part 1: A Measure of a Man – Hero must decide whether to go to war with his master or stay behind. His fellow slaves debate loyalty, freedom, and the price of escape. Hero struggles with what choice will define him as a “good man.”
Part 2: A Battle in the Wilderness – Hero is at war, serving his master, who is captured by Union soldiers. Complex dynamics unfold around power, loyalty, and betrayal. Hero makes a morally questionable choice that shows how war and slavery distort values.
Part 3: The Union of My Confederate Parts – Hero returns home, now going by “Ulysses,” a name he was given during the war. His return isn’t triumphant—he faces the consequences of his choices and realizes freedom is not as clear-cut as he hoped.
epic theatre
Born out of left-wing politics, epic theatre sought to educate and politicize the working class.
Brecht did not invent epic theatre, but he is the most famous practitioner of it.
Brecht wanted to intervene with the forces that shape society.
Brecht saw traditional theatre as a place where the audience was absorbed into a comforting illusion which played on their emotions.
This illusion left them drained (Aristotelian catharsis) and with a sense of satisfaction which predisposed them to accept the world as they found it.
Brecht saw this as illusion and a prop to capitalist and bourgeois mentality.
Epic theatre seeks to do the opposite of Aristotelian structure: examine emotion, not just stimulate it, and to involve the audience more intellectually than emotionally.
Epic Theatre seeks to alienate its audience from emotional attachment (this technique is called verfremdung or “alienation” or “distancing”) to prevent catharsis of emotion and escapism
It achieves this affect by…
Episodic structure of scenes
Spare stage, props are emblematic: illusion is meant to be seen as illusion (not realistic)
Production elements are often visible
Characters are often referred to by title, not name
Use of historification. Plays are set in different times and places but are meant to draw parallels to present-day events.
MC and scene titles tell audience what is going to happen next
Problems still exist at end of play
WW2
The most destructive, widespread war in history.
Caused the biggest human migration in history (some of this was forced)
Caused advances in technology, including flight technology, the invention of computers, and the creation of the atomic bomb
It is estimated that 60 million people died, which included a high number of civilian deaths.
THE HOLOCAUST
The Holocaust was systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of Jewish Europeans by the Nazis.
Gypsies, Jehovah Witnesses, homosexuals, political dissidents, Slavic peoples, communists, and disabled people were also targeted
It’s estimated that 2-3 million Russian POW’s were killed.
“The Final Solution,” or the systematic extermination of Jewish people and other targets, began in 1941
Carbon monoxide vans, shootings, and eventually gas chambers were used
The Nazis poured energy and resources into running the camps, even as they began losing the war
Kristallnacht
“On November 9–10, 1938, Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories. This event came to be called Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes.” -https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kristallnacht
after WW2
The ending of Shakespeare’s play King Lear was often modified to make it happier when it was performed before the war.
Its bleakness was somehow unbelievable to pre-war audiences. After the war, the original ended was kept.
EXISTENTIALISM
Existentialism (often associated with Jean-Paul Sartre) is a philosophy in which the dominating idea is based on the self existing in an otherwise lonely universe
Modern existentialists believe that there is no god, and that religion is delusional
They believe that there is no meaning, although humans do have the power to make decisions for ourselves
Existentialist plays include No Exit (by Sartre) in which 3 people who are dead are locked in a room with each other from which they cannot escape
Although Sartre’s plays portray a revolutionary philosophy, the plays themselves are fairly conventional in form
ABSURDISM
Connected to Existentialism, Absurdism concludes that life is Absurd and without meaning, there the search for meaning is also absurd
“Theatre of the Absurd,” was coined by critic Martin Esslin (although Absurdism was not a conscious movement like Dada).
Includes Albert Camus, Jean Genet, and Eugene Ionesco
Absurdists believe that life cannot be explained logically, and therefore to the pursuit of meaning is also illogical/absurd
Absurdist playwrights reflect philosophical absurdity by rejecting conventions of plot, characterization, and coherence.
Nothing seems to happen, settings are frequently strange and language is often non-sensical
bald soprano example
From The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco
The clock strikes seven times. Silence. The clock strikes three times. Silence. The clock doesn’t strike.
MR. SMITH: (still reading his paper) Tsk, it says here that Bobby Watson died.
MRS. SMITH: My God, the poor man! When did he die?
MR. SMITH: Why do you pretend to be astonished? You know very well that he’s been dead these past two years. Surely you remember that we attended his funeral a year and a half ago.
MRS. SMITH: Oh yes, I do remember. I remembered it right away, but I don’t understand why you yourself were so surprised to see it in the paper.
MR. SMITH: It wasn’t in the paper. It’s been three years since his death was announced. I remembered it through an association of ideas.
MRS. SMITH: What a pity! He was so well preserved.
MR. SMITH: He was the handsomest corpse in Great Britain. He didn’t look his age. Poor Bobby, he’d been dead for four years and he was still warm.
the arts after WW2
After the war, theatre (and the arts) became a way to deal with and heal from the trauma of the war
there was a sense that international cooperation could help prevent such a war from happening again.
one of the direct actions taken because of this sentiment was the creation of the United Nations the year the war ended: 1945
the same year, UNESCO, or the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization was founded.
because of this mindset, theatre (and all the arts) gain traction in many different walks of life (particularly in the west)
for example, Drama departments blossom in universities, theatrical training becomes seen as important for children’s development, governments subsidize the building of theatres and creations of theatre companies
some examples of this include the foundations of arts festivals that continue to this day, including the Edinburgh International Festival, Fringe festivals, and even our very own Stratford Festival here in Ontario, Canada
cause of the cold war
In spite of the post-war boom and wave of optimist experienced in the USA, there were many dark sides to this post-war time
in Europe, the continent had been divided into sections by the victorious countries, where the East was dominated by the Soviet Union, and the West was dominated by the USA
this led to the Cold War, where for nearly 50 years, the two countries sought to maintain or extend their influence—and to check the influence of their adversary— around the world
that and the creation of nuclear weapons led to this being a time of deep anxiety, in which atomic Holocaust seemed capable of ending life on earth
the United Nations became a stabilizing force, but it was —and is—not always effective, because some countries have the power to veto the organization’s decisions
The Vietnam War
called in Vietnam the American War or the War against America to Save the Nation, the war in Vietnam was in essence a civil war that became proxy war
it was symptomatic of the Cold War, the stand off between the USA and the USSR
American involvement began in 1954, when the country began to supply funding, arms, and training to the South Vietnamese Army.
it escalated into open conflict and by 1961, President John F Kennedy expanded military aid to include American troops.
by 1969, there were over half a million American military personnel in Vietnam
The North Vietnamese had defeated the French, and were looking to unite their own country
the primary reason the Americans got involved was because the North Vietnamese were communists
the American political leadership believed it was politically necessary
in fact, almost all American presidents who served through the war knew, as Johnson said, that “there was no daylight” — or no sense that victory was possible
to the public, however, politicians presented a very different, optimistic view
the war was seen by Americans as unjust, and this view increased as time went on and the fighting escalated
By 1967, protests against the war had spread across the country; American casualties were announced daily on the news
Richard Nixon was elected in 1968 in part because of his promise to end the war
in 1970, Nixon announced that the US was bombing Cambodia
They had in fact been bombing Cambodia in secret for months
the public became enraged and protests escalated even more, sweeping across American university campuses
Nixon called the protesters “bums”
4 students of Kent State University were shot dead by National Guardsmen during a protest there on May 4 1970
it’s estimated that 58,000 American military personnel were killed
over 1 m Vietnamese military personnel were killed; 2 m civilians were killed
the war shattered the sense of American military invincibility and idealism
People began to realize that their government was lying to them
One of the veterans in the Ken Burns documentary: “I’m from the last generation of Americans that believed in our government.”
the war divided the country and produced a skeptical, cynical population that viewed its country very differently than previous generations
culture changes in the 50-60
Another important social factor that affected theatre in the post-war world: the rise of television
in 1948 in the US, there were 48 television states
in 1958 there were 512 stations and 50 million televisions sets
the free entertainment provided by this new medium came at the time when production costs in theatre were mounting
between 1944 and 1960, the cost of theatre tickets in the US doubled
as a result, producers tended to seek vehicles—shows that would have a broad appeal
finally and truly, theatre is no longer a mainstream form of entertainment
in post-War America, there was a surge of optimism that was coupled with an economic boom
this is perhaps best epitomized by the musicals of Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II
However, works by people like Tennessee Williams and Lorraine Hansberry looked at different sides of American life
The Glass Menagerie in fact premiered during the war in 1944; Streetcar premiered in 1947
Hansberry’s work explores the pressures exerted on a Black family in Chicago because of racism—something that was very unusual to see on stage at the time
like Williams’s work, Hansberry’s work is rooted in realism but goes slightly beyond that, with a lyrical quality of the dialogue and powerful stage imagery
rock n roll
The advent of rock and roll in the 1950’s—by the 60’s it was just called rock—helped push theatre culture out of the mainstream
Broadway had since the ate 19th century been the primary source of popular music in the USA but by the late 60’s, Broadway was out and rock was in
Rock emerged out of a mix of country music, blues, and gospel-style harmonies; it had a powerful beat, and was characterized by electric guitars and drums
Black musicians such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard had been playing essentially the same style of music before, but it was Elvis Presley who launched the music into the mainstream
“rock and roll” had long been a euphemism for sex, and Presley’s music oozed sexuality and youth
in 1954, Elvis recorded and released five singles, including “That’s All Right;” he appeared on national television in 1956 on the Dorsey Brothers Stage Show.
religious leaders, government officials, and parents’ groups condemned rock, branding it the “devil’s music”
But like jazz from the 20’s, it was the voice of youth: sexy, angry, and rebellious, and it just kept getting bigger
it didn’t get any bigger with the Beatles and the subsequent “British Invasion”
rock had grown a little stale by the time the Beatles burst into the mainstream in 1964 with “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
when the Beatles performed on the Ed Sullivan show in February 1964, 73 million people, or 34% of the American population, tuned in
the beatles
the Beatles were the first band to play in a stadium; they hold the record for the most Number One songs on the Billboard Hot 100 at 21
“Yesterday” is the most covered song of all time, with over at least 3000 known versions of it
they pushed the boundaries of rock music: “Yesterday” has an unusual melody in that it lasts 7 bars instead of 8 and used a classical string ensemble
in 1965 on their album Rubber Soul, the song “Norwegian Wood” featured George Harrison playing the sitar
“I’m Only Sleeping” from the 1966 album Revolver, features recordings of a guitar playing backward
The song “Eleanor Rigby” shed many of the conventions of pop rock: there were no drums, no electric guitar, and none of the Beatles actually played on the recording
