Several modern dramas have had a strong social impact shortly after production and/or publication. Discuss the reasons for this in TWO cases.

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Several modern dramas have had a strong social impact shortly after production and/or publication. Discuss the reasons for this in TWO cases.

November 2003

Submitted by: - 0163330/1

Submitted to: - Keverne Smith

Word Count: - 2000 Words

Several modern dramas have had a strong social impact shortly after production and/or publication. Discuss the reasons for this in TWO cases.

In this essay I am going to study what social impact both Look Back in Anger by John Osborne and Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett had shortly after their production and publication. I will consider what theatrical conventions are or are not in each play, which could explain why people were drawn to the plays; as well as considering why the plays may be seen as controversial by some. Look Back in Anger and Waiting for Godot are unarguably placed at the beginning of a revolution in the British theatre. Both plays introduced new ideas and concepts into the world of drama. However they were both influenced by playwright Bertolt Brecht. Brecht's plays used a bare stage, placards to indicate location and non-atmospheric lighting. In Brecht's plays he is keen for his audience to think about what is happening and question things, which are happening rather than switching off. John Osborne's Look Back in Anger represented not a revolution in form but instead a revolution in content. The Brechtian influence encouraged Osborne and Beckett to experiment with style.

Waiting for Godot is termed a play in the 'Theatre of the Absurd'. Martin Esslin made up the term 'Theatre of the Absurd' for a number of playwrights. Beckett's absurd play like other absurd plays has the view that man inhabits a universe with which he is out of key with. The plays meaning is indecipherable and man's place within it is without purpose. The absurd play is undoubtedly strongly influenced by the traumatic experiences of the Second World War. As a result, absurd plays assume a highly unusual, innovative form, directly aiming to startle the audience, shaking them out of their comfortable, conventional life of everyday concerns. The 'Theatre of the Absurd' openly rebelled against conventional theatre. It was surreal, illogical, conflict less and plot less. These are all conventions used in Waiting for Godot; the audience were certainly shocked by its sense of nothingness.

Beckett did have problems finding someone to produce his play, the first half-dozen producers, which he approached, turned his play down for various reasons. The whole play only consists of two acts, which are set on two consecutive days; the second act repeats the activities of the first day but in a different order. The play opens on a barren scene: a country road, a tree and a near sunset. Estragon is sitting on a low mound repeatedly trying to remove his boot. He is left exhausted and when Vladimir enters Estragon proclaims that there is 'Nothing to be done', although he continues to struggle with his boot. The two men appear to be waiting for something to happen, as is the audience; the men are 'waiting for Godot'. (Beckett, 1954, P2)
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The identity of Godot is deliberately never revealed much to the annoyance of the audience. The opening act features a single tree as a parody of stage set. In the second act the previously bare tree has sprouted a few leaves, which reiterates the idea the Waiting for Godot is a play in which nothing happens. Vladimir and Estragon consider leaving and doing other things to pass the time but they are always drawn back to the same situation. This is a recurring theme in Beckett's work-the idea that life is something you live and there is no ...

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