English drama of the 1st half of the XXth century.

A new epoch of the English drama begins with the works of Bernard Shaw. He created modern English social drama. Inheritant of the best traditions of English drama, Shaw was also influnced by Ibsen and Chechov and thus he opens a new page in the XXth century drama.

George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin of Irish Protestant Stock and there received a somewhat scanty education at a number of local schools. Most of his cultural background he owed to his mother, a talented woman with whom, in 1876, he came to London. Here he became an active member of the Fabian society soon after it was founded in 1884. From 1885 to 1908 he won fame as a journalist – with the “Pall Mall Gazette”, “The World”, as an art critic, as dramatic critic for the “Saturday Review”. It was for this paper that he wrote the well-known articles attacking the sentimentality and insincerity of the theatre of the nineties. Shaw began as a dramatist with “Widowers Houses”. But none of his ten plays of the 90-s was met with success on the stage. Indeed, recognition was delayed for over ten years and then it came first from abroad – on the continent and in America. Then in 1904 – 1906 the “Court Theatre” under the famous Vedrenne – Barker management, presented his plays consistently and his reputation was assured. By the end of the First Wold War Shaw had become a cult. In 1925 he was awarder the Noble Prize for Literature, and four years later Sir Barry Jackson founded the Shaw Festival at Malvern.

His plays: “Pleasant and Unpleasant” contained seven works, three “unpleasant”, four “pleasant”. The “unpleasant” were “Widower’s Houses” (1892), “Mrs. Warren’s Profession (banned by the censor, privately produced 1902; publicly produced 1925), and, “The Philanderer”. The first two are resolute and deep examinations of slum landlordism and organized prostitution respectively. They are well constructed and contain flashes of Shavian wit, but their serious realism proved unpleasant for the times and merely brought their author notoriety. Having failed to put his ideas directly and seriously, Shaw adopted a humorous witty approach in the first of the “pleasant plays – “Arms and the Man” – an excellent and amusing stage piece which pokes fun at the Romantic conception of the soldier, this play achieved great popularity. It was the first of the truly Shavian plays.

“The Devil’s Disciple” satirizes the melodrama by using all its ingredients. It also shows the Humanity of a supposed villain and pokes fun at the rigid narrowness of the people who scorned him. It is full of fun, excellently constructed, and has been very popular. The scene is laid in America of the XVIII during the War for Independence. In this tense situation the real nature of the characters is revealed. Each of the characters is revealed in a new light, the former ideas break. The one who was considered venerable and true proves to be a mean, greedy person and inhuman fanatic and the one who was condemned by people as a robber proves to be courageous, altruist and unselfish.

social conventions and social weakness were treated again in “Pygmalion”; a witty and highly entertaining study of class-distinction and in “Heartbreak House”, which was set in the War period, really treats of upper-class disillusionment during the pre-War years. Shaw writes about the doom of bourgeois world; he resolutely depicts the ruin of the capitalist society and shows the war as a logical consequence of the crisis. Captain Strover’s house built in accordance with the wish of its master – former sailor, in the form of a ship, proves a symbol of England, which was rushing towards her fall.

All is unfirm and delusive in their world, everything is built on a unstable foundation. The web of false and hypocracy winds around people’s relationships. Elly Dan makes sure that her beloved lied her, and she deceived Mangen, with her decision to marry him. Modzino Dan is deceived who thought that Mengen was his friend and good-wisher, in fact Mangen had ruined him. People lose the sense of confidence. Each is extremely lonely.

In his play “Saint Joan” Shaw creates the image of a national people’s heroine of France, legendary virgin of Orlean – a common pleasant girl Joan d’Ark, who led the liberating war against the English invaders. Shaw shows the common girl with bright wit and frankness. In conflict with ambitious intriguers, who think only about their own career, not about the interests of their fatherland. Sentenced to burning Joan is left alone, she is deserted with all her former alliances. She proudly meets her death. She sees her true friends in French common people, for whose sake she commits her heroic deed.

“The Apple Cart” is a very interesting play and is a political pamphlet, play –grotesque, exposing the bourgeois democracy and depicting the future of England. In this play Shaw created images of cunning moneymakers who became rich on dishonest machination, who occupying ministers’ posts and ruling the country.

They love all the power of the country and command the King, who understands that he is just a convenient screen for their

Shaw rises problem of the USA interference into the political and economic life of England. English ministers’ policy led to the fact that the important branches if industry are leased out to other countries. American monopolists capitals penetrate in all spheres of England and submit them to the influence. The play is full of fun and wit.

And Shaw’s wit is the very essence of Shavian comedy, in which the dramatist standing outside the world he creates, sees it with detachment. His sense of fun is undying there is in his play and endless stream of vitality and gaiety of spirit.

John Boynton Priestly was a most popular writer in England during the World War Two. In 30’s of the XXc. he became a prominent figure in English literature as a dramatist. He wrote more than 40 plays. Most important of them are “Dangerous Corner” “Time and Conways”, “An Inspector Calls”. We can feel Chekhov’s influence in his plays according to the Chekhov’s tradition he tries to reveal the tenseness of everyday homeliness, to achieve the free development of events to show the life with all its semi-tons, reveal personalities of central and second-rate characters. Based on the traditions of the Chekhov’s plays Priestly worked out his own very original methods and above all with the category of time. In the second act of the play “Time and the Conways” Priestly shows actions in the future, trying to fancy what characters could be and in the third act he returns them to the time of the 1^st act.