Innes - A Sourcebook on Naturalist Theatre

A SOURCEBOOK ON
NATURALIST THEATRE

A Sourcebook on Naturalist Theatre provides essential primary sources which document one of the key movements in modern theatre. Christopher Innes has selected three writers to exemplify the movement, and six plays in particular

Henrik Ibsen A Dolls House and Hedda Gabler

Anton Chekhov The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard

George Bernard Shaw Mrs Warrens Profession and Heartbreak House

Innes illuminating introduction provides a fascinating overview of naturalist theatre. Key themes include:

the representation of women

significant contemporary issues

the links between theory, playwriting and stage practice

the use of ideas as the basis for action and character.

The primary sources explore many aspects of Naturalism, among them:

the dramatists aims

the first staging of each play

public reception

This is a must-have volume for all students studying theatre.

Christopher Innes is Distinguished Research Professor at York University, Toronto. Among his recent books are Modern British Drama: 18901990 and Avant Garde Theatre: 18921992.

First published 2000 by Routledge

Published 2014 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Transferred to Digital Printing 2007

2000 Selection and editorial matter Christopher Innes

The right of Christopher Innes to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

Typeset in Baskerville by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Innes, C. D.
A sourcebook on naturalist theatre / Christopher Innes.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Drama19th centuryHistory and criticism. 2. Naturalism in literature. 3. Ibsen, Henrik, 1828-1906Sources. 4. Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich, 1860-1904Sources. 5. Shaw, Bernard, 1856-1950
Sources. I. Title.
PN 1851.156 2000
809.2912dc21 99-39133
CIP

ISBN 978-0-415-15228-0 (hbk)
ISBN 978-0-415-15229-7 (pbk)

Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent

CONTENTS

Cover illustration, Toulouse-Lautrec: poster for Antoine's Thtre Libre 1985

The Seagull, Moscow Art Theatre: 1898 (directed by Stanislavsky)

The Cherry Orchard, Moscow Art Theatre: 1904 (directed by Stanislavsky)

Mrs Warrens Profession, The Stage Society, London: 1902 (directed by Bernard Shaw, performed without scenery)

Heartbreak House, Garrick Theatre, New York: 1920, and London 1921 (directed by Bernard Shaw)

I am most grateful to the following publishers for permission to reprint extracts from the works cited below. I should also like to express particular gratitude to the authors who have allowed me to use their work Albert Bermel, Bernard Dukore, Susan Mason, Anne-Lise Seip, Evert Sprinchorn and to the family of Laurence Kitchin.

All extracts from the writings of Bernard Shaw are reproduced by permission of The Society of Authors.

Charles Archer, William Archer, Allen & Unwin, an imprint of HarperCollins.

Georg Brandes, Inaugural Lecture, trans. Evert Sprinchorn. Originally published in The Theory of the Modern Stage (ed. Eric Bentley), Penguin, 1968.

Basil Dmytryshyn, Imperial Russia: A Sourcebook 17001917, Holt, Reinhart, and Winston, 1967, currently being reissued by Academic International Press.

Bernard Dukore, Bernard Shaw: Director, Allen & Unwin, 1971.

Elizabeth Hapgood, ed. Stanislavkis Letters, Stanislavskys Legacy, Theatre Arts Books, 1943.

Michael Heim, trans. Letters of Anton Chekhov, Anton Chekhovs Life and Thought, (ed. Simon Karlinsky), Northwestern University Press. Originally published by Harper 0 and Row 0, 1973.

B.J. Hovde, The Scandinavian Countries, 17201865, Kennikat Press. Originally published by Cornell University Press, 1943.

Henrik Ibsen, Ibsen Letters and Speeches, trans. Evert Sprinchorn, Hill 0 and Wang 0, 1964.

Henrik Ibsen, Notes for Hedda Gabler, trans. Evert Sprinchorn, originally published in Playwrights on Playwriting, Hill and Wang, 1961.

Laurence Kitchin, Mid-Century Drama, Faber and Faber, 1960.

Susan Mason, Ibsens Women: The Acting in Early Norwegian Productions, unpublished Ph.D dissertation, University of Oregon, 1980.

Vsevolod Meyerhold, Letter, trans. Nora Beeson, Tulane Drama Review (25, vol. 9, no. 1).

Anne-Lise Seip, Culture in the Norwegian Nation-State in the Nineteenth Century, Scandinavian Journal of History (1995, vol. 20, no. 1).

Konstantin Stanislavsky, My Life in Art, trans. J.J. Robbins, Penguin, 1967.

Konstantin Stanislavsky, An Actor Prepares, trans. Elizabeth Hapgood, Theatre Arts Books, 1936.

mile Zola, Naturalism, in the Theatre, trans. Albert Bermel. Originally published in Theory of the Modern Stage (ed. Eric Bentley), Penguin, 1968.

Photographs come from the collection of John Styan, and from the Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson Theatre Collection to both of whom I am deeply grateful. I should also like to thank Allana Lindgren, who acted as my research assistant on this project.

The following works are either out of copyright, or could not be tracked down:

Andre Antoine, Commentary on la mise en scene, trans. Joseph M. Bernstein, Directors on Directing, (eds Toby Cole and Helen Chinoy), Bobbs-Merrill, 1953.

S.D. Balukhaty, ed. The Seagull Produced by Stanislavsky, trans. David Magarshack, Dennis Dobson, 1952.

Constance Garnett, Chekhovs Letters to Olga Knipper, Chatto and Windus, 1925.

Emma Goldman, The Traffic in Women, Mother Earth Publishing, 1917.

Henrik Ibsen, The Letters of Henrik Ibsen, trans. Mary Morrison, Hodder & Stoughton, 1905.

Henrik Ibsen, Notes for a Dolls House, From Ibsens Workshop, The Works of Henrik Ibsen, Charles Scribner, 1912.

Vladimir Nemirovich-Denchenko, My Life in the Russian Theatre, trans. John Cournos, Little Brown & Co, 1936.

Elizabeth Robins, Ibsen and the Actress, Hogarth Press, 1928.

Michel St Denis, Theatre: The Rediscovery of Style, Heinemann, 1960.

Henri Troyat, Daily Life in Russia, trans. Malcolm Barnes, Allen & Unwin, 1961.

The aim of this sourcebook is to provide documentation on one of the key movements in modern theatre. Naturalism is not only a historical style, which reached the stage in the last decades of the nineteenth century. It forms the basis for mainstream plays and performances throughout the modern period, and is still the dominant theatrical form today. Indeed, Naturalism introduced a quintessentially modern approach, and defined the qualities of modern drama. Revolutionary in its own time, it has become the standard against which all subsequent stylistic experiments have measured themselves, and therefore deserves particular attention.