Absurdism

Associated with the minimalist style and bleak worldview of twentieth-century plays of the post-World-War-Two period (especially those of Ionesco, Pinter, and, problematically, Beckett).

Such works seem set in a world stripped of faith in god or a rational cosmos, in which idealism has been lost, and in which human action and communication are futile. Absurdist characters are often portrayed as trapped in a pointless round of trivial, self-defeating acts of comical repetitiveness. For this reason, absurdism can verge on farce or black comedy. Connected with the shock and disillusionment that followed World War Two, absurdism was anticipated in parts of Büchner's Woyzeck (see Volume II) . See also existentialism.

Act [of a play]

The sections into which a play or other theatrical work have been divided, either by the playwright or by a later editor. Dividing plays into five acts became popular during the Renaissance, in imitation of Roman tragedy; modern works are sometimes divided into three acts.

Aestheticism (or Art for Art's Sake)

See volume II, Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, p108.

A reaction to the realism and socially reforming agendas of late-nineteenth-century art. Associated in the theatre chiefly with Oscar Wilde, aestheticism asserted art's freedom to be separate and different from ordinary life and from practical uses.

Ag¯on

Greek for contest or competition, from which we get prot-agon-ist, the first or main actor/character, as well as related words such as "agony," "antagonize," etc. In Greece, plays were originally performed in competition, for prizes.

Alexandrine Couplets

A rhymed verse form based on six-beat measures, in which every second line rhymes with the one before. Alexandrines were used in French tragedy and comedy throughout the seventeenth and into the eighteenth century. They require highly skilled actors for their proper delivery.

"Alienation Effect"

Also known by the German term verfremdungseffekt, it is a Russian concept popularized by Bertolt Brecht to refer to any technique used in the theatre to distance spectators from the performance to the point where they can view it critically and ask questions about it. To alienate a phenomenon is to "make it strange," to make it seem odd or surprising. Actors do this when they keep their character at a distance rather than merging with it, or when they deliver their lines as if in quotation marks; directors use the "A-effect" when they interrupt the action or call attention to its artificiality with music, slides, or lighting. The opposite of "to alienate" is "to naturalize." See also epic drama.

Allegory

From the Greek for "speaking otherwise," allegories are generally didactic stories that consist of an accessible literal narrative that is meant to be taken symbolically as well. They often represent large-scale religious or political struggles in disguise. Allegorical characters frequently personify abstract values (Love, Charity, Greed, Big Business). Anima, the central figure in The Play of the Virtues , represents the human soul in general; see also Everyman.

Allusion

A more or less veiled reference, within one work of art, to the ideas, words, images or even simply to the existence of another work of art or to its creator.

Anachronism

Accidentally or intentionally attributing people, things, ideas and events to historical periods in which they do not and could not possibly belong.

Antiquarianism

The desire, particularly in nineteenth-century theatre, to avoid anachronism by meticulously researching the clothing, décor, music, and architecture of various historical periods. Its goal is to ensure that the sets and costumes for a given play are accurate for the time and place in which the story is set.

Apron

The part of a stage that extends into the auditorium or audience beyond the proscenium arch; sometimes called a forestage or a thrust stage.

Artistic Director

The creative and administrative head of a theatre company, responsible for selecting plays and determining the style and mandate of the troupe. Before the twentieth century, this role was sometimes taken by the playwright, as in Molière's case, or by the leading actor, as in dozens of "actor-­managers" of the English theatre.

Asides

Words delivered by actors to the audience, or by characters to themselves, which by convention are treated as if they were inaudible to the other characters on stage.

Aulos

The double-reeded pipe used on the ancient Greek stage as musical accompaniment for tragedy and comedy.

Autos Sacramentales

Spanish religious plays. See also Bible-cycle plays, carros, and mystery plays.

Bible-Cycle Plays

Medieval religious plays, usually performed outdoors, often on wheeled carts, dramatizing stories from the Bible. See also mystery play and pageant-wagons.

Black Comedy

Humour based on death, horror, or any incongruously macabre subject matter.

"Book"

The non-musical, verbal component of a musical (see musical theatre); in opera and operetta, the non-musical text is called the "libretto."

Boulevard

After the French Revolution, the largest theatre district in Paris, and for years the home of its illegitimate theatre. Sometimes called the "Boulevard of Crime" for its sensational true-crime stories and melodrama.

Box-Set

A stage set consisting of three contiguous walls and a ceiling, realistic floor coverings, light fixtures, and practical windows and doors through which actors make their entrances and exits as if into a real room or building (see realism). Developed in the nineteenth century, it is still used occasionally by scenographers today.

Breeches Roles

Roles written or adapted for female actors in which they portray men or dress in male attire; especially popular during the English Restoration and throughout the eighteenth century, when men's trousers, or breeches, were form-fitting and reached only to the knee.

Burlesque

A comical imitation of an existing work that affectionately ridicules its sillier qualities, usually through exaggeration, substitution, and incongruity. The term is also used, in an unrelated sense, for a twentieth-century genre of American variety entertainment featuring music, pairs of comedians, and a succession of female striptease acts.


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