美国戏剧

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.
style


（1）O’Neil 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.
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




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.
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源自文库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.‖
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
American Drama
学习指导

美国19世纪的戏剧并不发达，剧本缺乏文学价值。1915年以前，商 业化倾向严重，多数剧作可以用“挤人眼泪、逗人乐、吓唬人”几 个词来概括。在这以后的25年里，美国 的戏剧赶上了世界水平。大 学里设立了戏剧课，小剧场雨后春笋般出现，冲击了戏剧界的商业 习气。百老汇本身也进行了一些改革。奥尼尔是新戏剧运动的主力。 他的特点是把枯燥乏味的日常生活与美好的梦想加以对照，同时用 大胆创新的戏剧手法表现出来，以达到哲理、心理的高度，代表作 有《天边外》(1920)、《哀悼》(1931)等。奥尼尔还是现代主义在戏 剧方面的代表人物，他的剧作受到象征主义、表现主义和弗洛伊德 主义的影响。他对美国社会的合理性表示怀疑，创造了美国现代的 悲剧。当时还涌现出一大批优秀的剧作家，有的用新奇手法揭示机 器对人的压迫，有的用爵士乐般喧闹的节奏表现下层社会复杂多样 的生活，有的写出了有心理深度的社会批判剧，有的通过小人物日 常生活发掘善良、优美的人性。20世纪20末年代是美国戏剧的“黄 金时代”。 坦· 威廉斯(1914- )是战后享有盛名的南方剧作家，他的 《玻璃动物园》等作品通过人物的性变态心理表现生活的不幸与空 虚。阿尔比是美国荒诞派戏剧的代表人物。他的喜剧并没有什么滑 稽、幽默的成分，但是读后会使读者感到不安。

Eugene O’Neill entered Princeton University in 1906, but left shortly. Worked on a tramp steamer at sea. Obsessed with the mystical attractiveness of the sea Stricken with tuberculosis in 1913 In 1914 he studied the art of playwriting under George Pierce Baker at Harvard University.
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
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.
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 experimental.