Drama: An Introduction – English – UGC NET – Notes

Drama

Introduction

• Drama is a literary composition involving conflict, action, and crisis, meant to be performed on a stage before an audience. According to Abrams, it is a form of writing designed for theatre performance, where actors assume roles, enact events, and deliver dialogue. The essential elements of drama are actors, dialogue, setting, plot, and action.
• Drama is fundamentally a performing art, dependent on both the stage and the spectators. As Marjorie Boulton states, it is “literature that walks and talks before our eyes.” It exists within the limits of space and time, making it a temporal art. Unlike other literary forms, drama must be understood in relation to the theatre, not merely as text.
• Tom F. Driver emphasizes that performance reflects historical action within theatrical conventions. The theatre mirrors society’s understanding of time and history, functioning both as a narrative and a live enactment. Drama arises from the universal mimetic instinct, one of humanity’s earliest forms of imitation.
• As defined by Compton-Rickett, drama is a cohesive story presented through spoken action. At its core lies conflict. A light conflict results in farce; a serious conflict with a happy ending forms a comedy; and a serious conflict ending unhappily constitutes a tragedy.

Origins of Drama

• About 2,500 years ago, Western theatre was born in Athens, Greece. Between 600 and 200 B.C., the ancient Athenians developed a rich theatre culture whose form, technique, and terminology continue to influence drama today. Their achievement rivals only Elizabethan England and the Twentieth Century in theatrical greatness.
• Greek theatre evolved from religious rites dating back to 1200 B.C., especially the worship of Dionysus, the god of fertility. The Cult of Dionysus practiced ritual celebrations marked by ecstatic dancing and emotional expression, leading to ecstasy and later the idea of catharsis—emotional purification.
• A central element of these rites was the dithyramb, a choric hymn performed by a chorus with music and dance. Over time, the dithyramb developed into structured storytelling, eventually forming drama.
• By 600 B.C., Athens became the centre of theatre development. Arion formalized the dithyramb, and Thespis introduced the first actor, known as the protagonist. With Thespis’ innovation of dialogue, theatre moved beyond choral chant into true dramatic performance. His elevated platform marked the early form of a stage, distinguishing theatre from ritual dance and laying the foundation for Western dramatic tradition.
• Over time, the dithyramb evolved as poets added heroic tales, creating more elaborate dramatic plots. In 534 B.C., Pisistratus, ruler of Athens, established formal drama competitions, which became annual events. The archon selected competitors, while wealthy patrons called choregos financed productions.
• Major theatres were built, including the Theatre of Dionysus, the Attic Theatre, and the Theatre of Delphi. The term “theatre” comes from the Greek “theatron” (spectator stands), and “orchestra” refers to the circular performance space for the chorus.
• Thespis, the first prize-winning playwright (535 B.C.), helped formalize performance in a permanent space. Early plays were staged in daylight, with masks and buskins, and featured little scenery. Initially, competitions included a trilogy and a satyr play, emphasizing choral performance.
• Around 484 B.C., Aeschylus transformed Greek drama. He introduced props, scenery, and reduced the chorus. His surviving works include “The Persians” (472 B.C.) and “The Oresteia,” which explores themes of justice and hubris. Known as the Father of Tragedy, Aeschylus elevated drama from divine themes to the drama of humanity. His powerful style and use of mythology shaped the future of tragic theatre.
• In 468 B.C., he was defeated in competition by Sophocles, marking the next great phase of Greek tragedy.
• Sophocles advanced Greek drama by adding more actors and shifting focus to human conflict rather than divine intervention. A master craftsman, he won 20 competitions and perfected the single-play structure. He is renowned for tragic suspense and tragic irony, especially in Oedipus the King. Other major works include Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, and Philoctetes.
• Euripides brought realism and social criticism to tragedy. He portrayed ordinary people, including women, slaves, and the marginalized, and questioned war and religion. He introduced the Prologue to set the stage. His notable plays include The Trojan Women, Medea, Hippolytus, Cyclops, and Alcestis.
• Greek theatre also flourished in comedy. Old Comedy was represented by Aristophanes, known for sharp satire, political criticism, and anti-war themes. His works include The Acharnians, The Wasps, Peace, The Frogs, and Plutus.
• New Comedy, led by Menander, focused on mistaken identity, romance, and situational humour. His characters were ordinary people, establishing a model that influenced later comedy from Roman drama to Shakespeare and beyond. Key works include The Girl From Samos, The Shearing of Glycera, and The Arbitration.

Growth of Drama

• Gassner emphasizes that every human impulse contributed to the growth of the stage. Early drama began with primitive ritual, pantomime, and imitation of nature. Through dance, disguise, and mimicry, early humans expressed desires and connected with their environment. Gradually, the playwright emerged as both a guiding intellect and a social philosopher, shaping drama into an organized and meaningful art form.
• From Greece, theatre passed to Rome, but with the fall of Rome (4th century), drama declined. In medieval England, theatre revived through the Church, making it true that the “cradle of drama rested on the altar.” Religious leaders used drama to teach biblical doctrine to the masses.
• These early plays were called Mystery Plays (based on Scripture) and Miracle Plays (stories of Saints and Martyrs). Drama grew from the liturgy and the Mass, evolving from short dialogues into full performances. Important works include the 12th-century Play of Adam and Noah.
• Over time, towns organized large-scale cycle plays, named after cities such as Chester, York, Coventry, Norwich, Newcastle, and Wakefield. Trade guilds played a key role in staging these productions. One of the most moving examples is Abraham and Isaac, reflecting the deep religious roots of medieval drama.
• Mystery and Miracle Plays gradually gave way to Morality Plays and Interludes. While the former blended serious and comic elements, the Morality Plays focused on moral instruction through allegory. Characters personified abstract qualities such as Sin, Grace, Repentance, Virtue, and Vice. These plays aimed at teaching the Christian faith and portrayed humanity’s struggle between Good and Evil, God and the Devil.
• Famous examples include The Castle of Perseverance, Everyman, and Mankind. Here, the protagonist symbolized mankind, surrounded by figures like the Seven Deadly Sins and the Divine Graces. By around 1600, the Miracle Plays disappeared as regular drama became established.
• Interludes were shorter, mainly comic dialogues, designed for entertainment rather than moral preaching. John Heywood’s Interludes, especially The Four P’s and The Merry Play Between the Pardoner and the Friar, were widely popular.
• The first English tragedy, Gorboduc (also called Ferrex and Porrex), written by Sackville and Norton and performed in 1562 before Queen Elizabeth I, was structured in five acts, used a chorus, and was written in blank verse following Senecan tragedy.
• The first regular English comedy, Ralph Roister Doister (1553) by Nicholas Udall, marked the beginning of structured English comedy. Udall is known as the “Father of English Comedy.” Another early comedy was Gammer Gurton’s Needle.
• The rise of professional acting companies led to the foundation of a national theatre. In 1576, the first public theatre was built in Shoreditch, followed by famous theatres such as the Rose, the Swan, the Globe, and the Fortune.

Types of Stage

Drama has undergone significant changes over time, along with evolving stage types and forms of acting.

Period-wise, drama can be broadly classified as:

1. Classical Theatre (Greek and Roman)

2. Native Drama (1066–1500)

3. Renaissance Drama (1500–1660)

   • Elizabethan Drama – Shakespeare and contemporaries

   • Jacobean and Caroline Drama

4. Neoclassical Period / Restoration Drama (1660–1700)

5. 18th, 19th, and 20th Century Drama

Greek Theatre:

• Plays in ancient Greece were staged in amphitheatres, which were marked by a round stage about three quarters surrounded by the audience. Since amphitheatres were very large and could hold great masses of people (up to 25,000), the actors could hardly be seen from far back, and for this reason, acting included speaking in a loud, declamatory voice, wearing masks and symbolical costumes and acting with large gestures.
• The chorus was a vital part of ancient drama. It had the function of commenting on the play as well as giving warning and advice to characters. The stage scenery was neutral and was accompanied by the real landscape surrounding the amphitheatre. Plays were performed in daylight.
• Ancient Greek drama was performed on special occasions like religious ceremonies, and it thus had a more ritual, symbolic and also didactic purpose. The audience consisted only of free men; slaves and women were excluded.
• The Theatre at Epidaurus shows an open-air Greek theatre, with seats for the audience hewn out on the slope of a hill. The most prominent feature of the theatre is the large dancing circle, or orchestra, for the chorus. At the side to the right is one of the passageways or parodoi, affording entrance and exit for the chorus and processions.
• At the back are the ruins of the stone scene building, the skene, which could represent a temple or a palace and served as a permanent scenic background for the stage productions. During the 5th century BC, the skene became a two-storey stone building where the upper storey or episkenion was used for stage machinery, by means of which the gods were lowered to the stage level.
• The front of the lower story had a colonnade or proskenion. Most of the acting transpired on a low platform in front of this structure, flanked by projecting wings called paraskenia.
• Gradually, stage production became elaborate. The skene was usually rectangular and divided into rooms. Painted wooden panels called pinakes were placed between pillars. Later under Roman influence, the theatre underwent modifications: the stage became deeper, the frontage became a decorated scenic facade, and the orchestra was no longer a complete circle.
• Later, tragedy was stately and comedy was extravagant. Actors were trained in speech, dance, and pantomime.

Native Drama:

• Medieval plays (Mysteries and Moralities) were performed during religious festivities. They were staged on pageant wagons, which stopped in the market place and were surrounded by the audience. The close vicinity between actors and audience influenced the style of acting. Mystery plays were usually performed out of doors, and no permanent theatre was constructed.
• Within the church, stage representation followed the method of simultaneous setting (or multiple setting) using stations or mansions. The open acting space was called the platea. Mansions were arranged in a row facing the audience or placed on wheels to become moving pageants.
• The actors were amateurs, often members of guilds, and were generally paid. Heaven and Hell were symbolically represented. Costumes were gorgeous and imaginative. Live animals and placards were used.
• There were no actresses; boys played female roles. The audience consisted of all social classes, and the plays aimed to teach and edify, emphasizing life, pathos, and humour.

Apron Stage:

• The Elizabethan stage was typically found in public theatres, though it remained open-air. From 1580 to 1642, London theatres presented plays almost daily. The theatres were mostly circular, with a central courtyard open to the sky and surrounded by galleries.
• A projecting platform stage extended into the courtyard. Two pillars supported the roof, and at the back was a rear stage with a balcony and a movable curtain. There were no wings and very little scenery.
• The common Renaissance stage form was the open stage, surrounded by the audience on three sides. The projecting platform, known as the apron, accommodated most of the acting. Performance and the actor were central. Playwrights used long speeches, rhetoric, asides, and soliloquies.
• The theatre could hold up to 2,000 people, and the audience was heterogeneous. Plays combined multiple styles and subjects to appeal to a wide audience. After the mid-19th century, the apron was discarded, and emphasis on painted scenery led to a decline in stage illusion.

Restoration Stage:

• Theatres of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were smaller (about 500 people) and performances took place indoors with artificial lighting. The audience sat in a fully illuminated room. The stage was enclosed by a decorative proscenium frame, increasing the distance between audience and actors. There was no curtain, and scene changes occurred in full view.
• Plays presented idealized and highly stylized scenery, characters, language, and subject matter. The emergence of Patent theatres and minor playhouses marked an important development. With the rise of the middle classes, theatre traditions evolved and continued into later centuries.
• Four popular forms of entertainment were the operatic, spectacular, terpsichorean, and mimic. Audiences enjoyed music, dance, and visual show. The ballad-opera, invented by John Gay, reflected tastes for the extravagant and satirical.

Proscenium Stage:

• The stage of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is called the proscenium or picture frame stage. The ramp and curtain clearly separate actors and audience. The stage is illuminated while the auditorium remains dark, creating distance and anonymity.
• This arrangement enhances stage illusion and the representation of real life. Scenery becomes elaborate and true-to-life. Advanced stage props, lighting, and sound systems are made possible through new technologies.
• The performance moves with a film-like illusion, creating a believable story world. Alongside the conventional proscenium stage, there are modern stage forms such as street theatre. Over time, dramatic power has intensified, artistry refined, and themes become more secularized and universalized.