(Notes added throughout)
These notes are about both naturalistic styles and non-naturalistic styles. My hypothesis compares both these styles, so it is important to compare these two styles and understand them. In my powerpoint, I would do a slide describing both of these styles. This information is important because I can compare and contrast these styles. I will be able to apply this knowledge to analysing each style.
- in terms of style, naturalism is an extreme or heightened form of realism
- as a theatrical movement and performance style, naturalism was short-lived
- stage time equals real time – eg. three hours in the theatre equals three hours for the characters in the world of the play
- costumes, sets and props are historically accurate and very detailed, attempting to offer a photographic reproduction of reality (‘slice of life’)
- as with realism, settings for naturalistic dramas are often bland and ordinary
- naturalistic dramas normally follow rules set out by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, known as ‘the three unities’ (of time, place and action)
- the action of the play takes place in a single location over the time frame of a single day
- jumps in time and/or place between acts or scenes is not allowed
- playwrights were influenced by naturalist manifestos written by French novelist and playwright Emile Zola in the preface to Therese Raquin (1867 novel, 1873 play) and Swedish playwright August Strindberg in the preface to Miss Julie (1888)
- naturalism explores the concept of scientific determinism (spawning from Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution) – characters in the play are shaped by their circumstances and controlled by external forces such as hereditary or their social and economic environment
- often characters in naturalistic plays are considered victims of their own circumstance and this is why they behave in certain ways (they are seen as helpless products of their environment)
- characters are often working class/lower class (as opposed to the mostly middle class characters of realistic dramas)
- naturalistic plays regularly explore sordid subject matter previously considered taboo on the stage in any serious manner (eg suicide, poverty, prostitution)
Non-naturalism notes
When what is occurring on stage is not being portrayed as real life, with several techniques being used to provide a message to the audience. The below techniques are some examples:
Still Image
- A form of tableau where actors invent body shapes or postures to portray something. Things can be changed from one into another: eg. Cinderella’s pumpkin turns into a coach. Useful technique where you have not staging (as you won’t have for 4x4)
- Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tynyQj8Jayg
- Using voices or body percussion, create a ‘soundscape’ (like a landscape, only in sound) of a particular theme or mood. eg the city at night?
- Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSomWOUUCQ4
- Quite a simple one: how can you create an effect to communicate something significant about your drama by running something in slo-mo?
- Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZXILfwlf4U
- Does this need any explanation? I must have told you about this a million times already. Think exaggerated physical business; exaggerated voice
- Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaKirQLv0eE
- A complex and sophisticated art-form in itself - but useful at all levels especially where staging is minimal or non-existent.
- Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxmXnucXlMQ
- Also called Verfremdungseffekt - get used to this. You’ll be hearing a lot more about it when we go on to study Bertolt Brecht. Basically it means reminding the audience (often termed ‘spectators’ in this type of thinking to add to the sense that they aren’t really part of what is going on) that what they are watching is all made up and pretend. It involves the use of techniques designed to distance the audience from emotional involvement in the play through sharp reminders of the artificiality of the theatrical performance.
- Examples of such techniques include explanatory captions or illustrations projected on a screen; actors stepping out of character to lecture, summarise, or sing songs; and stage designs that do not represent any locality but that, by exposing the lights and ropes, keep the spectators aware of being in a ‘false’ and non-real activity.
- Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWcoTXnrfkg
- Thinking out loud. Think Hamlet. Pretty non-natural but pretty damned important. If only I could think of ways to get this stuff over to my students more effectively...oh my, what a world this is...
- Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYZHb2xo0OI
- Narration is a technique whereby one or more performers speak directly to the audience to tell a story, give information or comment on the action of the scene or the motivations of characters. Characters may narrate, or a performer who is not involved in the action can carry out the role of 'narrator'. Consider the opening scene of Henry V in which ‘Chorus’ introduces the audience to the play and outlines what is happening - and then reappears at points in the play to describe the change of scene.
- Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uDcIZAfegk
- This is where two scenes go on at the same time on stage, one stage left and one stage right. The scene stage left will begin, for example and the actors in the scene stage right will be frozen. The actors stage left will then freeze and the actors stage right will resume the action and then freeze at the end. This may go backwards and forwards several times. It is used to show events that are taking place simultaneously.
- Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ume-7YCUA5U
- A good reason to know what the Fourth Wall is - remember a week or so ago? - is consider it being broken (eg in a pantomime where the actors may ask the chilren in the audience for help as they look for the villain…”He’s behind you…”). ie speaking directly to the audience as if stepping momentarily out of they play. Woody Allen does this a lot: watch ‘Annie Hall’ if you haven’t already.
- Familiar from film, television and literature. It can be done in a number of ways - eg. an old man on one side of the stage thinks back to events in childhood, played by another, presumably younger actor while he watches on as if watching his own earlier life. Flash forward also possible.
- Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U27UYw8ePYA
- Is just a term used to identify where one of the strategies above has been used to draw particular attention to a point in the drama. eg using slow motion and exaggeration to highlight a key point in a murder scene?
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