Theater in the Modern World

Your Playlist:

Description

Not long after the start of the 20th century, playwrights, influenced by the horrors of two world wars, began to experiment with theater in a way which depicted many long-held historical, social, and cultural beliefs and practices as being meaningless and chaotic. Incorporating interviews with influential directors Bijan Sheibani, Steven Berkoff, and others, this program traces the evolution of modern theater from its existentialist roots through Absurdism to Social Realism and British "kitchen sink drama" via the works of Ionesco, Beckett, Pinter and even the writers of the U.K. soap opera "Coronation Street.