Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, first appearance and revival. Famous theaters in England and their history The best opera houses in Great Britain

Theater The first court theater, which existed in 1672–1676, was defined by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich himself and his contemporaries as a kind of newfangled “fun” and “coolness” in the image and likeness of the theaters of European monarchs. The theater at the royal court did not appear immediately. Russians

English theater

In the 19th century, theater, like all other spheres of English culture, received new development. Romantic destination in theater arts personified by the most talented tragic actor Edmund Kean (1787-1833).

Edmund Kean ( rice. 58) was born into an acting family. His parents died when he was still a child. Forced to earn his living, the young man traveled with a traveling troupe around English towns and villages. These wanderings became a good school for young artist, who by the age of twenty had visited many parts of England. When asked what you need to do to become a great actor, Keane, having already become famous, answered: “Be able to starve.”

Rice. 58. Keane as Shylock

Traveling with a traveling theater, Edmund tried himself in a variety of roles and plays of various genres.

Brought up in poverty, the actor felt contempt for idle aristocrats and rulers who cared little about their own people. Life credo young Keane expressed himself in the words: “I hate all lords except Lord Byron.” High society could not forgive such an attitude towards itself and constantly hounded Keane, calling him an actor of the crowd.

Having become famous on the provincial stage, in 1914 the actor received an invitation to perform in London at the Drury Lane Theater, which was going through difficult times in those years. His debut in the capital's theater was the role of Shylock in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. The management of Drury Lane, betting on a provincial actor, made the right decision: with his magnificent performance, Keane simply captivated the spoiled London public.

Shakespeare became Keane's favorite playwright. The actor was attracted to him by the qualities that he himself possessed: a tragic outlook, a heightened sense of injustice, rejection of a world where some eke out a miserable existence, while others bathe in luxury.

It was Shakespeare who brought Edmund fame. The actor embodied the images of Shylock, Richard III, Romeo, Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, Iago, Lear. Critics called his magnificent performance the best commentary on the work of the famous playwright, and the poet Coleridge argued: “Watching Kean’s performance is like reading Shakespeare in the flash of lightning.”

The image of Shylock created by Kean in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice made a huge impression on English audiences. His hero surprisingly combines an ironic attitude towards the people around him and a bitter feeling of loneliness, deep melancholy and soul-tearing hatred hidden behind external humility. “The Merchant of Venice,” staged at Drury Lane, brought yesterday’s provincial the fame of the best actor in England.

Keene considered his most significant works to be the roles of Hamlet and Othello. His Danish prince, sad and melancholic, understands that it is impossible to fight against the evil reigning in the world. Unusually trusting, sincere and integral by nature, Othello places love above all else, and therefore its death means for him the complete collapse of all his aspirations.

Keane's great success came from the role of the moneylender Overrich in the play “A New Way to Pay Old Debts” by F. Messinger. The audience, captivated by the actor's performance, could not hold back their tears. They say that Byron, who attended the performance, was so shocked that he fainted.

To achieve audience understanding, Keene worked carefully and for a long time on each role. He practiced all his movements and facial expressions in front of the mirror, returned again and again to the most difficult episodes, and honed the smallest details of his role. Sports activities helped him achieve extraordinary plasticity (Keane was considered one of the best fencers in England at that time).

The last work of the great actor was the role of Othello. Having uttered the phrase: “Othello’s work is finished,” the forty-six-year-old actor lost consciousness and fell. Three weeks later he was gone. Keane's death marked the end of the romantic movement in English theatre.

Edmund Kean's son, Charles Kean (1811-1868), was also an actor, playing mainly in melodramas.

The Victorian era made its own adjustments to the cultural life of England. For literature, these years became the time of the formation of critical realism (George Eliot, William Thackeray, Charles Dickens).

The name of the writer Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is associated with the transition of English theater from classicism to modern drama. Melodramatic plays were written for the theater (Village Coquettes, 1836; The Lamp Man, first published in 1879, etc.).

The eccentric comedy “The Strange Gentleman,” written based on one of the plots of the essay “Sketches of Boz,” brought great success to Dickens the playwright. All of Dickens's plays, except The Lampman, were performed at the St. James's Theater in the 1836-1837 season. In addition to them, the writer created a dramatization of his novel “Great Expectations,” but the play was not staged.

Dickens's plays were popular not only in England, but also abroad. The plots of several of his novels are the basis for a number of operas.

In 1951, the writer opened an amateur theater whose repertoire consisted of classical and modern works. Many young English playwrights began their creative careers with this theater. Dickens, who had excellent acting skills, performed the role of Shallow in The Merry Wives of Windsor in his theater. The writer also gained wide fame as an excellent reader who performed his own works from the stage.

A contemporary of Dickens, the English poet and playwright Robert Browning (1812-1889) began working for the theater at the age of twenty-two. His first play, Paracelsius, was published in 1835. Then came the historical dramas Strafford (1837), The Return of the Druze (1839), King Victor and King Charles (1842), written for the Covent Garden Theatre. The main roles in these productions were played by actor W. Macready.

In 1843, Covent Garden staged Browning's play The Spot on the Coat of Arms. And in 1853, another play by this author, “The Birthday of Columbus,” was performed on its stage.

Browning's romantic works, like his historical plays, are rooted in the traditions of the poetic drama of J. G. Byron and P. B. Shelley. At a time when melodrama dominated the English stage, Browning sought to attract the public's attention to a serious, meaningful performance. Misunderstood by his contemporaries, the writer gradually moved from stage drama to the genre of the so-called reading play.

The work of Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873), an English writer and playwright, who was also a famous political figure, is also noted for its closeness to modern realistic theater. His favorite genres were novels and dramas with historical themes. At the same time, melodramatic motives and methods of external showiness deprived Bulwer-Lytton’s works of genuine historicism.

The dramas “The Beauty of Lyon” (1838) and “Richelieu” (1839) brought wide fame to the playwright. Politically relevant and at the same time entertaining, theatrical and full of dynamics, these plays immediately attracted the attention of major English directors of the time. “Richelieu,” directed by Henry Irving, did not leave the stage of the capital’s Lyceum Theater for a long time. And in the 1840s – 1860s, Russian viewers were able to see Bulwer-Lytto’s drama (the main characters were played by actors V.V. Samoilov and N.K. Miloslavsky).

Edward Bulwer-Lytton was attracted not only to historical plays, but also to comedies that satirized the mores of Victorian society - We Are Not as Bad as We Look and Money (1840). Although the playwright did not delve into social criticism, the realism of his works attracted the attention of viewers to them. Bulwer-Lytton comedies long years were in the repertoires of English theaters.

Bulwer-Lytton's historical novel "Rienzi" interested the famous German composer Richard Wagner, who based its plot on the opera of the same name, presented to the audience in 1840.

At the end of the 19th century, the famous English writer, novelist and playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) ( rice. 59). He was born in Dublin, in the family of a poor employee. At the age of twenty, Shaw moved to London, where he became one of the founders of the Fabian Society. While working as a music and theater critic, Bernard wrote several obscure novels. His first play, The Widower's House, appeared in 1892. The play addressed important social and ethical issues, sharply criticizing landlords who rent out housing in slums. The playwright called on his readers to self-improvement and change the world around them. The audience greeted the play “The Widower's House,” staged at the Independent Theater, coolly, and after only two performances it was removed from the stage.

Rice. 59. George Bernard Shaw

Over the next six years, the playwright wrote nine plays (including one one-act play). The sad drama “Heartbreaker” (1893), which tells about an advantageous marriage that ended in complete failure, was not accepted for production by any of capital theaters. In 1894, the drama “Man and Arms” appeared, exposing the inhumanity and cruelty of war. In 1897, the play “The Devil’s Disciple” was created, and in 1898 a two-volume collection “The Pleasant and the Unpleasant” was published, which included plays from different years (“Mrs. Warren’s Profession,” 1894; “Man and Arms,” “Candida,” 1897; “The Chosen One of Fate”, 1897; “Wait and see”, 1899, etc.). The play “Mrs. Warren's Profession,” which raised the topic of prostitution, was banned by censors, but later, when it was finally allowed to be staged, it did not leave theater stages until 1902. Candida was a huge success in New York in 1903. And in his homeland, Shaw still did not enjoy any popularity. Real recognition of the English public came to him in 1904, when he, along with his wife, as well as the actor and director Harley Grenville-Barker, rented the Royal Court Theater building. Shaw's plays were directed by Grenville-Barker and John Vedrenne. Of the 988 performances staged at the Royal Court between 1904 and 1907, more than seven hundred were based on Shaw's works.

Among the best works of the playwright is the play “Man and Superman” (1905) - a philosophical comedy that presents to the viewer the author’s attitude to religion, marriage, and family. The evolution of human society is shown through the disputes between Don Juan, who found himself in the underworld, and the devil.

Shaw's most famous play was Pygmalion (1913), an anti-romantic comedy written specifically for actress Patrick Campbell. After the death of the playwright, Frederick Lowe and Alan Jay Lerner based it on the musical My Fair Lady.

Shaw's later plays include Heartbreak House (1919), Back to Methuselah (1922), the historical drama Saint Joan (1923), The Apple Cart (1930), and others.

Shaw, who became the embodiment of English wit, created more than 50 works for the theater. When the great playwright died, theaters in many countries around the world turned off their lights as a sign of grief.

The writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) made a significant contribution to the development of English theater. Like Shaw, he was born in Dublin, the son of a famous surgeon. Educated at Oxford University. Wilde's first works were the poem "Ravenna" (1878) and the collection "Poems" (1881).

The writer became famous for his lyrical stories and fairy tales (Star Boy, etc.), and the philosophical novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. For the theater, Wilde created a number of plays with a socially critical orientation (Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892; An Ideal Husband, 1895; The Importance of Being Earnest, 1899). The play Salome was written in French and published in England in 1894, translated by Alfred Douglas with illustrations by the artist Aubrey Beardsley. This play formed the basis for Richard Strauss's famous opera of the same name (1904).

At the end of the 19th century, the English playwright Henry Arthur Jones (1851-1929) began writing for the theater. Coming from a poor peasant family, he made his living as an actor.

Without gaining fame as an actor, Jones turned to drama, but his first plays also did not bring the desired success. Theaters refused to take his works, and only in 1878 did Jones’s play “It’s Just Around the Corner” be accepted for production in one of the provincial theaters.

The long-awaited success came to the playwright after his “Silver King” was staged at the Princess Theater. John's most significant works include the plays Saints and Sinners, Dancer, Rebel Susanna, Triumph of the Bigots, Michael and His Lost Angel, and The Defense of Mrs. Dane. Many of Jones's dramas expose the hypocritical morality of Victorian society ("Liars", 1897; "Lies", 1914), although the enthusiasm for melodramatic techniques somewhat reduces their significance. But, despite this, we can confidently say that Jones’s work had an impact on the formation of the realistic movement in the theatrical art of England late XIX centuries. Jones collaborated with Bernard Shaw, and the latter highly regarded his works.

English stage art of the late 19th century is associated with the name of actor and entrepreneur Arthur Voucher (1863-1927). In 1884, the young actor, who studied at Eton and then Oxford, became one of the founders of the Oxford University Dramatic Society. On his stage he played in Shakespeare's plays (Henry IV, Twelfth Night, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Julius Caesar).

Voucher's debut was the role of Jacques in Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It, performed in 1889 on the professional stage in Wolverhampton. The performance brought fame to the actor, and in 1889-1894 he played in various English and American theaters.

In 1895-1896, Voucher headed the Royal Theater, and his wife, E. Vanbrugh, was a leading actress playing leading roles in comedies and farces. From 1900 to 1906, Voucher served as artistic director of the Garrick Theater. At this time, he played many roles in plays by Shakespeare (Shylock, Macbeth), A. Pinero, J. Gilbert, G. A. Jones. In 1910, the actor joined the Beerbohm Tree troupe (His Majestys Theater), where he embodied the images of Henry VIII and the Foundation in Shakespeare's plays Henry VIII and A Midsummer Night's Dream. A very temperamental and emotional artist, Voucher was especially successful in playing bright, character roles (John Silver in “Treasure Island” based on the novel by R. L. Stevenson).

At the end of the 19th century, actor and entrepreneur Gerald Hubert Edouard Busson Du Maurier (1873-1934) began his career in the theater. He made his debut as Fritz in the play “The Old Jew” by Grnadi, staged in 1895 at the Garrick Theater. In the same year, he joined the Beerbohm Tree troupe and went on tour with it to the USA. In 1899-1901, he visited America again, this time with the famous English actress Patrick Campbell.

The actor's most significant stage works at this time were the roles of Sandford Cleve in The Famous Mrs. Ebbsmith and Captain Ardale in Pinero's The Second Mrs. Tanqueray. In 1902, Du Maurier became an entrepreneur in the troupe of Charles Froman (Duke of York Theater), where he created with great success the characters of Ernest Wooller (The Admirable Crichton by J. Barry), Hook and Darling (Peter Pan by the same author). ).

Du Maurier was most successful in comedic roles. The ability to behave naturally, sincerely and simply helped the actor win the love of the audience. His best works were the images of Montgomery Brewster in McCutcheon's Brewster's Millions and Hugh Drummond in Bulldog Drummond, a dramatization of McNeil's novel.

In the period from 1910 to 1925, Du Maurier, together with F. Curzon, headed the Windham's Theater, and from 1925 to 1929, together with G. Miller, he directed the St. James's Theater. The theater's production of Lonsdale's play The Last Days of Mrs. Cheney (1925) brought great success to the theater. Subsequently, Du Maurier staged several more performances in various theaters (“The Ringer” by Wallace, 1926, “Windham’s Theater”; “The Letter” by Maugham, 1927, “Playhouse Theater”; “Alibi” by Morton based on the novel by Christie, 1928, “Prince of Wells” theater"; "Doctor Pygmalion" by Owen, 1932, "Playhouse theater", etc.).

A prominent figure in the English theater of the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries was the actor, director and famous teacher Frank Robert Benson (1858-1939). WITH early youth he actively participated in all kinds of amateur performances. His first professional stage was the London Lyceum Theater, headed by G. Irving. A year later, the young actor opened his own traveling theater, which gave performances not only in London, but also in Stratford, as well as other provincial cities.

Benson's favorite playwright was Shakespeare. In just a few years, the director staged almost all the plays of the great playwright, with the only exceptions being “Titus Andronicus” and “Troilus and Cressida”. From 1886 to 1919, the company, led by Benson, played at the Shakespeare Memorial Theater in Stratford-on-Avon. In Shakespeare's homeland, with her participation, annual festivals of Shakespeare's plays were held.

A wonderful actor and director, Benson was also a talented teacher who trained many wonderful artists. He is the author of a work on acting. Benson also wrote a book of memoirs. IN last years Throughout his life he was involved in cinematography.

The famous English actor, director and playwright Harley Grenville-Barker (1877-1946) began his theatrical career as an actor. In 1891 he joined the S. Thorne troupe in Margate. The following year, Grenville-Barker already performed at the London Comedy Theatre.

From 1904 to 1907, together with playwright Bernard Shaw, Grenville-Barker directed the Royal Court Theater, part of the “free theater” movement, which focused on serious realistic drama.

Grenville-Barker, who promoted stage realism, dreamed of opening a national theater with a permanent repertoire, but, unfortunately, the attempt to create it was not crowned with success.

Among Grenville-Barker's works, performances based on Shakespeare's plays occupy an important place. The director published a 5-volume work, “Preface to Shakespeare,” in which he examined in detail the most difficult Shakespeare plays to stage and gave practical advice on staging them in the modern theater. Grenville-Barker's plays “The Marriage of Anna Lyth” (1902), “The Voysey Inheritance” (1905), “Madras House” (1910), “Weather in Han” and others became widely known.

After World War I, England received a number of German colonies and part of the Middle Eastern lands that belonged to Turkey. The English economy, undermined by the war, began to revive, but this did not last long. Already in 1921, inflationary growth and a decline in the standard of living of the population began.

In 1924, the Labor government came to power, but, despite all its efforts, the economic and political situation in the country did not change, and the Conservatives who replaced Labor made the situation even worse. In May 1924, a general strike began in England. Plants and factories completely stopped and ceased to function railways, mines. The government managed to relieve tension in the country for some time, but already in 1929 a severe economic crisis broke out.

The 1930s were also troubled. Hitler came to power in Germany, and in England, with the connivance of Baldwin and Chamberlain who replaced him, the British Union of Fascists launched its activities.

When did the second one begin? World War, it turned out that England was completely unprepared for it. After the defeat at Dunkirk, the English expeditionary force left the continent. Having occupied France, the Nazis were already preparing to launch an invasion of the British Isles, but they were prevented by the Battle of Britain, won by British aircraft, and then by the outbreak of hostilities against the USSR.

On May 26, 1942, England and the USSR signed an agreement on military alliance and cooperation in Peaceful time, but for some time Churchill delayed the opening of a second front. At the end of the Second World War, the Conservatives' policies completely disillusioned the people, and in the 1945 elections Labor won a landslide victory.

The social situation in the country could not but affect English drama in the first half of the 20th century. During these years, such things were done in the country famous writers, like Somerset Maugham and John Boynton Priestley.

Rice. 60. Somerset Maugham

English writer William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) ( rice. 60) was born in Paris, in the family of a legal adviser at the English embassy. At the age of ten, he was left without parents and was raised in England by relatives. Having fallen ill with tuberculosis, Maugham settled in southern France and then moved to Germany, where he became a student at the University of Heidelberg. In Germany, the future writer became close to Ibsen

and Wagner. It was Ibsen's plays that awakened Maugham's desire to become a playwright.

Returning to England, Maugham began studying at a medical school. For three years he worked as a paramedic in an ambulance, which gave him knowledge of the life of ordinary people (as part of his profession, Somerset visited the poorest areas of London). His novel Lisa of Lambeth, written in 1897, tells the story of the London slums. He brought the young writer his first fame. Maugham later created whole line novels that give a broad panorama of the life of English society (“The Burden of Human Passions”, 1915; “Theater”, 1937).

The theater always attracted Maugham, but achieving success in this area was not easy. The desire for a realistic reflection of reality sometimes scared entrepreneurs away from the writer. The production of his play “Man of Honor” (1903) did not contribute to the writer’s popularity in commercial art.

Finally, in 1907, Maugham managed to stage the comedy Lady Frederick, which was received with delight by the audience. After this, London theaters opened their doors to the playwright, and in the same year, 1907, three more performances based on his plays appeared.

The playwright created a type of play that he called “smart.” The contemporary reality of his works is shown through a clash of characters, and the action is often interrupted so that the characters can discuss the situation. When creating his plays, Maugham often uses techniques characteristic of the works of Shaw and Ibsen, but most often he turns to English comedy of the Restoration era. It is from the dramaturgy of the second half XVI- the beginning of the 18th century is the art of character and intrigue present in the works of Maugham. In many of his plays there is also an interest in the traditions of French theater.

Maugham's early plays "Lady Frederick", "Mrs. Dot", "Jack Straw", staged in London theaters in 1907, were written in the style of a drawing-room comedy. Subsequently, the playwright moved away from light satire and turned to serious realistic dramas about “people who know everything.” In 1913, “The Promised Land” appeared, telling about the fate of the poor girl Nora. Brought up in a bourgeois English environment, she ends up in Canada, with her farmer brother. Unsuited to work and trying to behave like a lady, she arouses the indignation of her brother’s wife. But, having become the wife of a neighboring farmer, Nora gradually changes and, when she is given the opportunity to return to her former life in London, she refuses, realizing that she will no longer be able to live among idle people and worthless people.

The play “The Hearth and the Beautiful Wife” (1919) is dedicated to the theme of post-war English life. The First World War ended, and the major, whom everyone considered dead, returned home. His wife Victoria married his friend, also a major. Friends compete in nobility, giving each other the right to stay with the beautiful Victoria, but she divorces both of them and becomes the wife of a speculator who became rich in military supplies. This moneybag who escaped the front drives a Cadillac and has the ability to get any food. Both ex-husband The incomparable Victoria claims that they always guessed about her meanness and greed. This is the home for which the British fought in the war.

The theme of marriage in bourgeois society is continued by Maugham’s famous play “The Circle” (1919). Elizabeth, the wife of a young politician, is disappointed in her husband and admires his mother, whom she has never seen: in her youth she ran away from her husband with his friend, Lord Proteus, who was running for the post of Prime Minister. But after such an act, the lovers were denied entry into society, and only Elizabeth secretly invited them to her place. Imagine her disappointment when, instead of a romantic couple, she saw a young old woman and an ill-mannered, evil old man. Much became clear to the young woman, but she did not give up her love and left the house of her prosperous husband to go with a young colonial official to distant Malaya.

In 1928-1933, four more plays by Maugham appeared: “The Sacred Flame” (1928), “The Family Breadwinner” (1930), “For Merit in Battle” (1932) and “Sheppie” (1933). The provincial lawyer in the drama “For Military Merit” believes that justice and prosperity reign in society, although his own family is dying under the pressure of circumstances.

Son Sidney came home blind from the war, and one of the sisters takes care of him, although it burdens and torments her. She dreams of uniting her fate with a man who also recently returned from the front, but her fiancé, unable to find himself in this society, takes his own life, and the unfortunate girl loses her mind. Her sister becomes the wife of a demobilized officer - an arrogant and ill-mannered man. The fate of the third daughter is also tragic. Trying to escape from the gloomy situation, she runs away from home with a wealthy speculator who made his wealth through dirty transactions. The war broke the destinies of all family members. Sidney’s words are filled with bitterness: “I know that we all ended up as puppets in the hands of the mediocre fools who ruled our countries. I know that we were all sacrificed to their vanity, greed and stupidity. And the worst thing is that, as far as I understand, they haven’t learned anything.”

The story of the main character from the drama “Sheppey” is sad. Sheppey, a middle-aged hairdresser, became the lucky winner of a big win.

He dreams of helping those in need, but his daughter and her fiancé believe that this money will help them get into big politics, and are trying to get Sheppey declared crazy.

The production of Sheppie, not intended for commercial art, failed, and Maugham decided to leave playwriting and never return to work for the theater.

Rice. 61. John Boynton Priestley

John Boynton Priestley (1894-1984) ( rice. 61) was born in the town of Bradford (Yorkshire), in the family of a teacher. In 1914 he became a student at Cambridge University, but with the outbreak of the First World War he volunteered for the front. Priestley completed his studies at the University after the end of the war. He soon gained fame as a writer of essays, as well as a literary scholar and critic. The novel Good Companions, written in 1929, introduced the reader to the life of traveling actors, brought Priestley great success. The writer’s first and unusually successful experience in drama was the play “Dangerous Turn,” staged in 1932.

Like Maugham, Priestley knew how to accurately convey human types and create intrigue. At the same time, his plays are more problematic than the works of Maugham and Shaw.

In “A Dangerous Turn,” Priestley, like Maugham, reveals what is hidden behind the external well-being of life. What appears behind the layers of lies and deception is truly scary. The playwright builds his plays on the principle of a “closed room detective.” A murder has been committed in a small circle of close acquaintances, everyone is under suspicion, and at the same time they all become amateur detectives.

A chain of revelations gradually unfolds, starting with accidentally dropped words at a party at the publisher Robert Kaplan, who learns that his beloved brother Martin was a sexual maniac and did not commit suicide, as was officially believed, but was killed by a woman. Almost all of his relatives were involved in his death. Having learned the terrible truth, Robert took his own life. But this is only a hypothetical version of events. The ensuing darkness dissipates, and the setting of the first act again appears before the viewer’s eyes. The characters carry on the same conversation, and the phrase that served as the beginning of the revelation is not developed. The “dangerous turn” has been successfully passed, and the party continues. But what is actually hidden behind the calm flow of life is already known to the viewer.

In 1937, Priestley's play Time and the Conway Family appeared, in which the author uses the technique of a turn of events. The action begins in 1919 with a family holiday. A friendly and wealthy family celebrates Kate's birthday. The girl turns twenty-one, she is full of hopes for a happy future and dreams of becoming a writer.

The second act dates back to 1937. The characters are the same, but they are all unhappy. The party, which took place many years ago, became an event that turned the life of the family in a direction that led all its members to a sad result.

The third act returns to 1919, but now to the viewer, who has learned what happened many years later, the family party does not seem fun and happy.

Priestley also turned to the motif of time in his subsequent plays: “I've Been Here Before” (1937), “Music at Night” (1938), “Johnson Beyond the Jordan” (1939). To make the characteristics of his characters deeper, the writer places them in an unusual environment, in which something that was previously hidden not only from others, but also from themselves is revealed.

In a number of plays, Priestley uses bold experiments. Thus, in the drama “From Heavenly Times” (1939), which took place on the stages of theaters in many European countries, the actors get into character right in front of the audience and even change roles.

The English playwright highly valued Chekhov's work. His influence is most evident in the play Eden End (1934). “Eden End,” reminiscent of Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard,” tells the story of a woman who ran away from her parents’ home many years ago to become an actress. Now she has returned to her father’s quiet and comfortable house, dreaming of feeling happy again. But the past cannot be returned, and the characters in the play, no matter how much they would like it, cannot start a new life.

Comedy occupies an important place in Priestley's dramaturgy. In this genre, the writer created a number of unusually witty works that criticize the life of society. His comedies enjoyed extraordinary popularity in European countries, but did not bring much success to the playwright in his homeland.

The comedy “Rakita Grove” (1933) became widely known. The unremarkable and modest owner of a small stationery warehouse suddenly admits to his family that he is actually the head of a gang of counterfeiters. Relatives, having heard about this, show him every respect, although they previously treated him with disdain. They all believe that he is no worse than the big financial tycoons who ruined him during the economic crisis and turned him into a criminal.

Some comedies indicate Priestley's interest in the lives of representatives of certain professions ("Love by the Light of Jupiters", 1936; "Good night, kids", 1941).

The play “Bees on Board the Ship” (1936) stands somewhat apart, which the author himself called “a farcical tragedy in two acts” and “ political satire in the form of a farce." The crew, left on an ocean liner abandoned by its owners to the mercy of fate during an economic crisis, is trying to save their ship from all kinds of attacks. In the finale, the ship dies from an explosion organized by the company that owns the liner.

Priestley's utopian drama They Came to the City (1943), inspired by the utopian novel by the English artist and writer William Morris, News from Nowhere, or the Age of Happiness (1891), is also unusual. The heroes of Priestley's play live in a city where there is no private property, they are happy and cheerful. Using the “time shift” technique, the author introduces into the play characters from different strata of modern English society, who perceived the unusual city and its inhabitants differently.

Two more of Priestley's plays were received with great interest by the public: “The Inspector Came” (1945) and “The Linden Family” (1947).

In the first play, the playwright again uses his favorite technique of “time shift”. The family of industrialist Berling is going to celebrate their daughter's engagement. Suddenly, a police inspector appears in the house, investigating the suicide of a girl named Eva Smith. It turns out that all family members are guilty of her death. Birling fired her from his enterprise, his daughter ensured that Eva was kicked out of the store, and her fiancé seduced and abandoned the unfortunate woman. To top it all off, Berling's wife, who had influence in charitable organization, did so that the girl was refused help.

Having found out everything, the inspector leaves, and the Birling family, surprised that their actions relate to the same girl, begin to call the hospital and the police. They learn that there were no suicides, and an inspector with that name does not work in the police. The Birlings calmed down, but, as it turned out, too soon. Suddenly a phone call rang, and the head of the family was informed that a girl who had previously worked at his factory had died in the hospital, and a police inspector was coming to them to find out the circumstances of the death.

In the 1950s, Priestley continued to work in drama, but was no longer able to write anything significant.

The poet Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) made a great contribution to the development of English drama. (Fig. 62), who dreamed of creating a new poetic drama based on the traditions of ancient and medieval art.

Rice. 62. Thomas Stearns Eliot

Eliot was born in the USA. In 1910 he came to Europe to study at the Sorbonne. His formation as a writer took place under the influence of those who appeared at the beginning of the century modernist movements. Dissatisfied with modern bourgeois culture, in his search Eliot turned to neoclassicism, based on the traditions of antiquity and the Middle Ages.

Eliot's transition from poetry to drama is associated with his ardent desire to convey “true spirituality” and the ideals of humanism to more people. This goal is pursued by all his plays that appeared in the 1930s, and then in the 1940s and 1950s (“Murder in the Cathedral”, 1935; “Family Convention”, 1938; “Cocktail Party”, 1949; “Private Secretary” , 1953; “The Elder Statesman”, 1958).

The question of a person’s personal responsibility for everything that happens in the world is raised by the play “Murder in the Cathedral,” which is a striking example of Eliot’s poetic tragedy. Creating his work in peacetime, the playwright seemed to have a presentiment of the coming world war, which was still five years away.

"Murder in the Cathedral" was intended to be shown at the Canterbury Festival, where other works were presented telling the fate of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, who lived in the 12th century. Becket helped Henry II fight for a centralized monarchy, but later became an enemy of the king, for which he paid with his life. After his death, the archbishop was canonized by the church. Becket's personality still causes controversy among historians and writers. Eliot presented his hero as a man whose actions were driven by the desire for high spirituality, which is why he fought against the base interests of the monarch and his minions. Having accepted martyrdom, Becket took upon himself the sins of humanity and opened the way for people to humanism and truth.

The play in which poetic language combines with prose, is based not only on historical material, but also on the realities of the 1930s. Thus, the speeches of the knights who killed the archbishop are very similar to the speeches of the far right with threats of the “night of long knives” to everyone who does not agree with their ideas.

The largest representatives of English left-wing radical drama were the poet Whiston Hugh Auden (1907-1973) and the novelist Christopher Isherwood (born 1904), who attempted to create a modern poetic drama based on the traditions of the English music hall.

In 1933, Auden wrote the play Danse Macabre, which predicted the end of modern bourgeois society. In 1936, it was staged by director Rupert Doone at the Group Theater in London. Subsequently, the playwright worked in collaboration with Isherwood.

Auden and Isherwood's play The Dog Under the Skin (1935), staged in 1936, was greeted with interest. This work, which included elements of parody, high poetry, agitprop, fairy tales, and expressionism, at the same time had a unity of style.

Every year, the villagers of Pressen Embo send one of their young men in search of Sir Francis, the heir to the estate who has suddenly disappeared. It was the turn of Alan Norman, an honest and simple man. The dog Francis, who lives in one family or another, goes on the journey with him. The travelers visited many countries and met different people, but the heir was never found. Alan had already decided to abandon further searches when he discovered that his dog was the wanted Sir Francis. The skin of a dog helped him learn a lot, understand how rotten social foundations were. Returning to his village, Francis saw that the ideas of fascism in it had prevailed over all others. Together with a group of young people, the heir leaves to fight against injustice and evil.

Also of great interest is Auden and Isherwood’s play “On the Border” (1938), full of symbolism, which tells the story of two families living in the same room. Between them lies invisible line, turning them into two warring sides. Among the characters in the play are young lovers belonging to these families, united only after death, the Cynic, who explains the nature of fascism (the head of the steel trust), and the Leader, a demagogue who is fed by the Cynic.

Subsequently, Auden and Isherwood moved away from their previous ideas. In 1966, Isherwood's story "Goodbye Berlin" (1939), which tells about Germany before the Nazis came to power, was adapted into the musical "Cabaret", and in 1972 - a famous film of the same name.

The First World War and the time preceding it destroyed the system of theatrical enterprises that had been formed in the 19th century, headed by actors G. B. Tree, G. Irving, and J. Alexander. The commercial theater of the West End came to the fore in the theatrical life of England, offering people tired of war funny and spectacular shows. Farces, melodramas, light comedies, and musical shows were extremely popular.

The situation in theater world has not changed in post-war years. Light genres still reigned on the stage, and serious plays by Strindberg, Ibsen, and Chekhov could only be seen on the stages of small London theaters (Everyman, Barnes) and theater clubs. The American critic T. Dickinson wrote about the English theater of that time: “The British Isles are politically isolated. The English theater finds itself in similar isolation. In the 1920s, British theater proved largely unable to respond to the deep impulses that were guiding theater on the Continent.”

English youth, who rejected the traditions of the Victorian era and strived for an Americanized way of life, were bored by Shakespeare, whose dramas had disappeared from the West End stage.

The performances of the Cambridge Festival Theater, headed by Terence Gray in 1926-1933, became real parodies of the great Shakespeare. Thus, in The Merchant of Venice, Portia delivered her famous monologue about mercy with a bored look, a completely expressionless voice, and the judges sitting in front of her yawned. The nobles in Gray's Henry VIII are dressed as card jacks and queens, and some of the characters are replaced by mock-ups of playing cards.

It is interesting that, while rejecting the classics, English directors of that time often turned to the comedy of the Restoration era. Among them was the famous actor, director and owner of the Lyric Theater in London, Nigel Playfair, who staged a number of period comedies. On the Lyric stage there were also performances interpreted in the spirit of the times based on plays by comedians of the 18th century. For example, John Gay's Beggar's Opera, which had not left the Lyric stage for three years, lost its satirical orientation and turned into a light, cheerful spectacle. In Playfair's interpretation, Gay's play represented a carefree and cheerful age, the atmosphere of which was conveyed by candles lit in chandeliers auditorium, wigs of theater orchestra musicians, as well as music by Handel and Purcell. N. Marshall very accurately described the stylizing skills of Playfair the director: “In the styleless English theater of that time, he gave an example of an elegant and holistic stage style.”

The star of the Lyric Theater was actress Edith Evans (1888-1976), who began with the roles of young heroines in Restoration comedies. Huge success in 1924 was brought to her by the image of Milliment in the play “This is what they do in the world” based on the play by Congreve. Milliment, just like Sullen in Farquer’s “The Cunning Plan of the Fops,” is an unusually cheerful and graceful creature, eager to experience all the joys of life.

The plays of Bernard Shaw, performed on the stages of the West End and in experimental small theaters, enjoyed great success among English audiences in the 1920s. “Saint Joan,” staged at the New Theater, brought its creators tremendous commercial success. The performance did not leave the stage for a long time, lasting more than two hundred and forty performances. The role of Jeanne was played by the famous tragic actress Sybil Thorndike (1886-1976).

The role of Jeanne was intended for Sybil Thorndike by Bernard Shaw himself. He rehearsed with her and the other actors, trying to instill in them the idea that they were playing a modern play, and not a costume drama dedicated to the past. Sybil Thorndike played a heroine whose main features were not romance, but a sober mind and moral strength. Looking at Jeanne, the audience understood that this simple peasant girl, who proved herself in long-past battles, could become the heroine of the modern First World War.

In the late 1920s, the idea arose in theater circles to hold annual festivals of Bernard Shaw's plays in the small town of Malvern. The first Malvern Festival took place in early 1929 and opened with Shaw's play The Apple Cart. The role of the main character in this play was played by actress Edith Evans. The festival existed until the outbreak of World War II.

Barry Jackson (1879-1961), who headed the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, played a major role in organizing the Malvern Festival. This theater was opened in 1913, around the same time as the repertory theaters in Bristol, Manchester, and Liverpool. Unlike commercial ones, they had a permanent troupe and staged serious, problematic plays. On the stage of the Birmingham Repertory Theater there were performances based on the works of D. Galsworthy, A. Strindberg, B. Frank, G. Kaiser and, of course, B. Shaw. In 1923, Barry Jackson staged his pentalogy “Back to Methuselah”, in which famous London actors, including Edith Evans, played along with representatives of the Birmingham Theater troupe. Shaw also took part in the rehearsals.

In 1925, in London, Barry Jackson's troupe showed Hamlet (directed by G. Ayliffe). Never before have London audiences been so surprised: Hamlet was dressed in a tracksuit, Laertes in Oxford trousers came on stage with a suitcase with a bright sticker: “Passenger to Paris.” Polonius sported a tailcoat, and Claudius wore a robe of scarlet silk. The king's courtiers played bridge and drank whiskey. The Danish kingdom turned into modern England with its well-established traditions. Hamlet entered this old hypocritical world with his truth, brought out from the trenches of the First World War.

In the 1920s, Chekhov's plays appeared in the repertoire of English theaters. A significant role in introducing the English viewer to Chekhov's works played by director Fyodor Komissarzhevsky (1882-1954), invited in 1925 by entrepreneur Philip Ridgeway to the Barnes Theater. The first play staged by a Russian director on the Barnes stage was Ivanov ( main role it was performed by R. Farkerson). Then “Three Sisters” (1926) was staged, interpreted by Komissarzhevsky as a romantically elevated and unusual poetic spectacle. The director used bright light and color effects, unusual for Chekhov's style. In the same year, 1926, Barnes viewers saw two more dramas by Chekhov - Uncle Vanya and The Cherry Orchard.

In those years, Chekhov's plays were staged only in small theaters, and only in the 1930s were they able to be seen by almost the entire English public. At the same time, a whole galaxy of talented actors appeared in the country. Along with the stars of the 1920s (Sybil Thorndike, Edith Evans, etc.), Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft, Ralph Richardson, Alec Guinness shone on the English stage. They could be seen playing mainly at the Old Vic Theater and Gielgud's Enterprise at the New and Queens Theatres.

Located on Waterloo Road, the Old Vic was opened in the 19th century, but became widely known before the First World War. In 1918-1923, Shakespeare's plays were performed on its stage, in which the best English actors played, who refused the high fees of the West End for the sake of real art. Edith Evans was invited to all the theaters in the West End, but she preferred a small salary at the Old Vic. She played many roles in Shakespeare's plays, including Catharina, Viola, and Rosalind.

Shklovsky Viktor Borisovich