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Theatre Arts for Advanced Secondary Schools

(c) Realism explores social issues and personal struggles, but often with a
sense of balance and moral complexity while naturalism delves into the
darker aspects of life, such as poverty, violence, and corruption, presenting
them in a frankly manner.
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(d) Realism is pioneered by playwrights like Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov,
and George Bernard Shaw, realism has significantly influenced modern
drama and literature while naturalism is championed by writers like
Émile Zola, August Strindberg, and Maxim Gorky. Scholars from both
movements have impacted the works of contemporary artists profoundly.

Expressionism

Expressionism is a movement that emerged in the early 20 century in Germany.
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The movement had a significant impact on drama in particular and performance
in general. Expressionism is basically the subjective expression of an inner
vision of an artist. In simple terms, expressionism gives outward expression
to inner feelings. Expressionism is an artistic style in which the artist seeks to
depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions that objects and
events arouse within a person. The artist accomplishes this through distortion,
exaggeration and fantasy. Expressionism frees artists from all academic rules
and traditional aesthetic concepts especially traditional norms of beauty. While
Vicent Van Goh is considered as the father of expressionism movement in fine
art, August Strindberg is referred to as the father of expressionism in theatre.
Others who extended the movement and names of their plays include Georg
Kaiser “From Morning to Midnight”, August Strindberg “The Ghost Sonata”,
Frank Wedekind “Spring Awakening”, Georg Buchner” and Ernst Toller “The
Machine Wreckers”. These are some of the notable expressionist playwrights
whose works popularised the movement.

Features of expressionism
(a) Subjectivity: Expressionist playwrights and directors aim at conveying the
inner emotional experiences of characters rather than depicting external
reality faithfully.

(b) Distortion and exaggeration: Expressionist plays are featured by
distortion and exaggeration. Settings, characters and actions convey the
heightened emotional states of characters.

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