Essays on Drama

Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children shapes the audience’s perspectives on war and capitalism by exploring the interactions of an individual (the eponymous Mother Courage) with and in war. The presentation of war as an entity that has the capability to destroy anything, even...

Brecht’s source for the play “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” evolves from the play that he saw in Berlin: Li Qianfu’s medieval Chinese play “The Circle of Chalk” in an adaptation by the German poet Klabund. Brecht wrote the play during the World War II in...

Bertolt Brecht is regarded as one of the most important figures of twentieth century. He was born in Bavaria in the year 1898.He brought a great transformation in the traditional literary and theatrical form, through his ‘epic theatre’. He attempted to bring a revolutionary change...

“Behaviour is guided by extant exigencies and biological needs, and actors formulate a strategy of effectively modifying empirical reality in their own interests.” Many communist writers of the 20th century reacted towards the tragic dimension of revolutionary violence, sacrifice, and social injustice in a serious...

The German playwright, poet, and theatre director Bertolt Brecht(1898-1956) is perhaps best known as a pioneer and main exponent of “epic theatre” which, in opposition to naturalist or realist drama or the drama of bourgeois tendency that used to serve an ambiguous cause by not...

Bertolt Brecht wanted his works to revolutionise theatre’s bourgeois values and generate a social and political shift. As an influential dramatist, he developed a firm impression that theatre should make us; ‘think about power and the way our society works and it does this with...

The play, “The Good Woman of Setzuan” by Bertolt Brecht is a work of epic theatre and revolves around the life of the protagonist Shen Te, that consists of marked elements of façade and survival in the society and the gender norms. The play aims...

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a film that was released in 1958 and was directed by Richard Brooks. The movie was derived from a play with the same title written by Tennessee Williams, the renowned playwright. The movie centers around the tumultuous relationship...

In the play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams advocates the view that denial of the truth surrounding one’s circumstances disrupts the relationship dynamic between that person and others around him or her. Williams develops this view of denial through describing the dysfunctional...

In 1955, William acquired a Pulitzer Prize for his drama, A Cat on A Hot Tin Roof, which primarily revolves around the lives of Maggie, Daddy, Mama, Brick, Gooper and Mae. As most of the characters are surrounded by yelling noise and anger, communication and...

Drama is the most powerful move of communication. It is seen as a way to improve young our reading and vocabulary skills. Shakespeare was one of the main influencers of this. He created drama as a way of communication while still being creative and making...

Contemporary drama is revolved around current problems or issues within society. It is relevant to the era that was composed in attempted to relate with the audiences. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw and The Lion and The Jewel by Wole Soyinka are popular contemporary drama...

William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet (1599) is a play that centres on the forbidden love between two tragic heroes. This tragedy was written during the Elizabethan Era (1558-1603), which is considered to be the golden age in English history, and was a time when...

Drama is a distinctive fictitious form because it is intended to be performed out on a stage before an audience. The word ‘drama’ comes from the Greek word ‘dran’ meaning to act or to do. Drama brings a story to life before our eyes, the...

In the memoir, The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, she reflects back on her indigent and malnourished life. Due to unfortunate circumstances, Jeannette never had a real childhood and was forced to mature at a very young age. Constantly moving from city to city because...

Space is an important element in drama and is embodied by the stage itself as a representation of a space where action is presented. Plays differ significantly with regard to how they present space and how much information about space they offer the audience. The...

This movie in its best part has many characters with many dilemmas encountered, and this is the intense part where I am always excited to watch and to know how these characters will solve the ongoing problems concerning about their faith to God. If it...

In the contemporary world, living life simply is awesome as it gets. Earlier, I thought living a life that necessitated constant fulfillment for instance shopping, status or different types of drama would result to happiness, but in the real sense leaves an unorganized mess that...

Throughout history our country has always given someone a fair trial by jury where 12 random U.S. citizens are chosen to serve on the jury. The play Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose examines the dynamics at play in a United States jury room in...

Adapted from the novel by Craig Silvey, Kate Mulvany’s Jasper Jones deals with dark topics of racism, rape, suicide and the stereotypes of gender roles in a light and whimsical manner through a 13-year-old Charlie’s perspective. Directed by Nescha Jelk, the play is layered with...

Who knew that wearing a flashy suit was capable of completely change one’s cultural identity? Zoot Suit is a play written by Luis Valdez that demonstrates the Trial of the Sleepy Lagoon Case of 1942 in which the courts charged a group of “Pachucos” with...

An explosive trial leads the moderately quiet town of Hillsboro to question their faith in Brady and thinking factually. Belief is pitted against evolution, and Brady vehemently believes that religion is the only valid sect of the case. In the play Inherit the Wind written...

The mental cracks of an unstable mind loom large over Michelangelo Antonioni’s first color film. But although main character Giuliana (Monica Vitti) is parallel to the film, it isn’t her student. Red Desert is too unresolved, too contingent, too woolly to reduce to a purely...

In David Ives’s Sure Thing, disagreements are avoided with a ringing bell, which serves as a device to shape consensus and allows the couple to fall in love at the end. Both characters are quick to judge and come close to giving up on each...

The question I am setting out to answer the question of why ‘television dramas about schools and schooling are more than entertainment. Discuss, using examples’ and so this essay will set out to analyze the number of programmes and movies that are shown regularly on...

Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon is a film that effectively depicts the struggle of Philippine independence, and the life of an ordinary boy trying to explore and discover more of the country. The death of his mother and his acquaintance with Padre Gil, a...

Susan Glasper, one of the major dramatists of the 20th century whose masterpiece “trivia” has always been considered a classic feminist drama. Although the performance of this one-act play was only half an hour, it described a thought-provoking murder case and analyzed the spiritual world...

The essay consists of three parts. The first part deals with the explanation of a 2009 movie sin Nombre which is basically a crime movie about a Mexican based gang while the second deals with the concepts about nationalism in the two articles while the...

The story of birth and the early development of English Drama are complicated. It has passed various stages and transitions. There was no drama in English before the Norman Conquest. The bulk of old English writings were overshadowed by the influence of Latin Christianity. The...

The Seagull is a typical Chekhovian drama, part of a sub-genre which could be referred to as an “undramatic drama”. It has little plot, and most of the plot’s place is taken up by psychological portraits, lyricism, and a certain, truly ungraspable atmosphere, built up...