美国戏剧

1916 Bound East for Cardiff （东航卡迪夫） produced at the Wharf Theatre in Massachusetts by the Provincetown Players. 1920 the Provincetown production of Beyond the Horizon （天边外） won him the Pulitzer Prize. Out of 47 plays, 4 received Pulitzer Prizes, the other three being Anna Christie（安娜· 克里斯蒂）, Strange Interlude （奇异的插曲）, Long Day’s Journey into Night（进入黑夜 的漫长旅程）. Won Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936. Shortly before he died of bronchial pneumonia in 1953, O’Neill set to destroy all of his remaining manuscripts. However 3 completed plays were uncovered among his papers: Long Day’s Journey into Night; Hughie; and A Touch of the Poet.
His position

He was the first playwright to explore serious themes in theatre. With him, American drama developed into a form of literature. And in him, American drama came of age （mature）. He came only after Shakespeare and Bernard Shaw in the world of drama.
The Iceman Cometh
送冰人来了
Long Day’s Journey into Night

A Semi-autobiographical play in four acts. The Tytone family: the father, James Tyrone, an actor; the drugaddicted mother, Mary; the elder brother, Jamie; and Edmund, based on O’Neill himself, stricken with Tuberculosis.
Brief Introduction



1. 17th century Ye Bare and Ye Cubb （1665） by William Darby 2. 18th century American subjects began to be treated seriously. The first tragedy is The Contrast （1787） by Royal Tyler. It is considered typical American play about American soldiers. 3.19th century poetical plays, esp in the first half of a group of playwrights after civil war: realism, melodrama, emotional incidents （domestic melodrama）, with simple plots
Modern Drama
Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller
Eugene O’Neill
(1888-1953)


1936 Nobel Prize for Literature – Desire Under The Elms, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day’s Journey Into Night. His plays are sometimes autobiographical, generally tragic, often experimentalil was a tireless experimentalist in dramatic art. He paid little attention to the division of scenes. He introduced the realistic or even the naturalistic into the American theatre. （2）He borrowed freely from the best traditions of European drama, especially the stream of consciousness. （3）He made use of setting and stage property to help in his dramatic representation. （4）He wrote long introduction and directions for all the scenes, explaining the mood and atmosphere. （5）He sometimes wrote the actors’ lines in dialect.
Major Plays
The Hairy Ape （毛猿）





A social drama, but the social problem is only the touchstone to a larger problem, and social dislocation is only a symbol of a more profound cosmic dislocation. Theme: Profound spiritual poverty and disharmony which, beginning as a by-product of the industrial age, soon became its most dominant characteristic. ―Aw, hell! I can’t see—it’s all dark, get me? It’s all wrong!‖ Yank could not find a spiritual place in the universe. Ontological本体论的 problem of modern man’s existence Psychological study of one’s sense of being Attempt to reestablish relationship with nature
Desire Under the Elms, represents a milestone in American Drama.


Expressionistic Set for Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms The trees seem to brood over the home of Ephraim Cabot. Desire Under the Elms is a modern telling of Racine's Phaedra.
20th century



separation from the old tradition 1920s: Little Theatre Movement began after 1912, Washington Square Players, Provincetown Players （New York City, Greenage Village）. They are freed from the conventional theatre and can be as experimental as they like. 1930s: Eugene O’Neil, Clifford Odets Post-war: second climax of American drama, Arthur Miller: Death of a Salesman 60s: Theatre of the Absurd, Edward Albee
Life



Born in New York City, Oct. 16, 1888 Father: James, matinee idol specialized in portraying the count of The Count of Monte Cristo. James toured the entire country for sixteen years in this production. The family had a summer cottage in New London, but the Irish family was looked down upon by the Puritan neighbors. About mother: ―First seven years of my life spent mostly in hotels and railroad trains, my mother accompanying my father on his tours of the United States, although she never was an actress, disliked the theatre, and held aloof from its people.‖