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The influences and dramatic techniques used by playwrights Eugene O'Neill and Thornton Wilder in their respective works. It explores how European non-realistic dramatists influenced O'Neill and Wilder, and how they used parallel characters and situations to achieve dramatic unity and stress thematic elements. The document also touches upon the use of masks, elaborate stage instructions, and the role of the Stage Manager in Wilder's plays.
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ABSTRACT
"The art pleases by reminding, not by deceiving." 1 Of all the arts, the representation which is theatre has particular problems in attempting to mimic the real world. Gordon Craig, whose ideas significantly influenced the young O'Neill, mocked the unnaturalness of witnessing contemporary performances, his complaints ranging from the experience of actually going to the theatre:
"Is it not unnatural for us to wait till night to enjoy an art? Is it not unnatural to sit two and a half long hours on one seat - a ticketed seat, a numbered seat, crushed in on all sides by strangers?" 2
to objections about the performance itself:
"The rouge is not dabbed on artificially as a frank artifice - it pretends to be natural nowadays. How great a fault!" 3
Similar dissatisfaction was common in the early twentieth century. AnseIm Feuerbach said: It hate the modern theatre because I have sharp eyes and cannot be fooled by pasteboard and cosmetics. I despise the absurdity of its decor." 4 Nor were these critics any happier with the use of real nature on stage, realising that this would paradoxically appear uninteresting and even untrue. Sarcey declared in 1916: "I hold that reality if presented on stage truthfully would appear false to the monster with the thousand heads which we call the public."^5 "The perfection of naturalism by mechanical means has developed the peep show ad absurdum", wrote Georg Fuchs, adding an interesting prediction:
1. E.H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion. A Study in the Psychology of Representation, **New York, 1960, p. 38.
"The conventional theatre itself has proved to us that we are encumbered with an apparatus that prohibits all healthy growth. This whole sham world of cardboard, twine, canvas, and gilt is ripe for destruction.",
These reactions to the staging of the time were in fact no different from Coleridge's realisation a century earlier:
"The true stage-illusion in this and in all other things consists - not in the mind's judging it to be a forest, but in its remission of the judgement that it is not a forest ... For not only are we never absolutely deluded, or anything like it, but the attempt to cause the highest delusion possible to beings in their senses sitting in a theatre, is a gross fault, incident only to low minds, which, feeling that they cannot affect the heart or head permanently, endeavour to call forth the momentary affections." 2 Neither O'Neill nor Wilder was interested in deluding an audience; both wanted something more than momentary affections. As American writers, both had a barren national tradition on which to draw. Although popular with a largely undiscriminating audience, American theatre had sprung, as James Rosenberg puts it, "full-blown from the brow of British drama at a time when the British drama was at its lowest ebb in history". 3 Towards the end of the nineteenth century the stage was dominated by melodramas, many of them either imported or imitative of British models, in spite of some previous attempts by American authors to produce a more native drama based on folk heroes like Rip Van Winkle. Theatrical performance was distinguished by the use of the new box-set, spectacular stage effects (helped by the new possibilities of gas and later electrical stage lighting), and the emergence of the dominating actor or actor-director who became the idol of the day. O'Neill himself grew up with such a pot-boiler, his father James having already
**1. Fuchs, p. 37.
architecture of the theatre hindered development in drama. Both too were attracted by the apparent simplicity and ritual of theatre in the Far East. But it was the non-realistic dramatists of Europe who had the most obvious influence on early O'Neill and on Wilder. Expressionism originated in Germany partly as a reaction to the earlier naturalism,and resulted in the plays of Wedekind and Kaiser, but it was introduced to O'Neill through the plays of August Strindberg,,to whom the American always felt he owed a particular debt because opened his eyes to the possibilities of a^1419 new kind of drama. O'Neill acknowledged his debt to Strindberq who "carried Naturalism to a logical attainment of such poignant intensity that, ... we must classify a play like The Dance of Death as 'super-naturalism' ..." 1. Like his predecessor, O'Neill was impatient with a realism which showed only the obvious and the mundane:
"The old 'naturalism' - or 'realism' if you prefer ... no longer applies. It represents our Fathers having aspirations toward self-recognition by holding the family kodak up to ill-nature. But to us their old audacity is blague; we have taken too many snap-shots of each other in every graceless position; we have endured too much from the banality of surfaces. We are ashamed of having peeked through so many keyholes, squinting always at heavy, uninspired bodies - the fat facts - with not a nude spirit among them ..." 2. Like Strindberg, O'Neill wanted to cut below the surface and from this contemporary of lbsen's O'Neill learned that new non-realistic stage techniques could be used to convey the new meaning. A similar dissatisfaction with on-stage realism which hindered truth from being presented lay at the heart of Thornton Wilder's experiments. "I began writing one-act plays", he said, "that tried to capture not verisimilitude but reality." 3 Again like O'Neill,
1. Eugene O'Neill, "Strindberg and Our Theatre", in O'Neill and His Plays, edited by **Oscar Cargil, N. Bryllion Fagin and William J. Fisher, New York, 1964, p. 108.
Wilder's mostimmediateinspirationcamefromEurope. Hespentbetween1 92 8and1 930 touringEurope withhissisterIsabel,studyingstagetechnique whichincludedthe workof Max Reinhardt whoseconcepts.ofensembleactingand moderndirection, which encouragedallthetheatricalelementsto worktogether,influenced O'Neillas well.In Berlin Wildersaw Bertolt Brecht'splaysandlaterheattemptedacollaboration with BrechtonanEnglishadaptationof Der Gute MenschvonSezuan.Indirectcontradiction toStanislavsky's"method"acting, Brechthaddevelopedhistheoryofalienationaimed atdestroyingtheatricalillusionbyvarioustechnical methodsandthuspreventingthe audiencefrombecomingemotionallyinvolvedintheplay. Douglas Wixsonargues convincinglythatafterthisperiodin Europearadicalchangetookplacein Wilder's writing whichincluded manyoftherulesforepictheatre"includingtheshatteringof dramaticillusion,theconsciousrole-takingoftheactor,thesymbolicuseofstage properties...,thetendencytouseparableasabasisofthenarrative,thedidactic intent,andtheepisodicstructure".^1 Theimportance Wilderplacedonactionsbeing givengreatersignificancethroughtheuseofanon-illusorydevice may wellbea reflectionof Brecht'sdictumthatthealienationof"partoftheactionbringsitforwardin allitsimportance, makesitremarkable".^2 Nonetheless, we wouldbedoing Wilderadisservicetooverstressthe Brechtian influence. Certaintechniquessuchaschangesinrole,thesymbolismofstageproperties andthedidacticpurposearealreadyapparentintheplayscontainedinthevolumeThe AngelthatTroubledthe Waters,suchas"Proserpinaandthe Devil". AndasFrancis Fergussonpointsout, Wilder'sphilosophy"isattheoppositepolefromBrecht's"3, Wilder's concernbeing withgreatoldtraditionalideas,andatheatrealmostdevoidofconflict. Burbankclaimsthat Wilder wasinfluencedby Strindberg whenhesawhisplaysin
Attwenty-eight O'Neill was"discovered"bythe Provincetown Playersandit. wasinthishighlyproductiveperiodthatthefirstofthenon-realisticplays were written. Althoughsomeoftheearlierplaysanticipatehisillusionistdevices, Before Breakfast for examplerelyingononecharacter,itisthelongerplays which willformthebasisofthe presentdiscussion: TheEmperorJones (writtenin1 920 );The Hairy Ape (^1920 );The Great God Brown ( 1926 ); Marco Millions^ (^1928 );^ LazarusLaughed^ (^1928 );^ Strange Interlude( 1928 ); Dynamo ( 1929 ) and Days WithoutEnd ( 195 o. Because^ ofthe limitationsofspace,certainplays whichcontainonlyoneortwonon-realistictechniques havebeenomittedsuchas All^ God'sChillun^ Got Wings^ withitsexpresionisticsetand symbolic maskand TheFountain withits maskedfigure. Theplayschosen maynotbeasfamous,popularor well-regardedas TheIceman Cometh A Moonforthe Misbegotten orLong^ Day'sJourneyinto^ Night,^ butthey makea mostinterestingstudyofthethinkingoftheyoungplaywrightandtheyincorporatesome elements which,totallynewtotheAmericandrama,helpedformthebasisoflaterplays byother writers. BycontrastThornton Niven Wilder'slifeisapparentlyunadventurousandstable. But,like O'Neill,hisearlylife,asBurbank^1 suggests„hadacontinuedinfluenceuponhis work andtheseinfluences weresi milartothose on O'Neill: areligiousfa mily background,aneducation whichemphasizedtheclassical worksofliteratureand widespreadtravel.There, however,the,t?biographicalsimilaritiesend. Nineyears youngerthan O'Neill, Wildergraduatedfrom YaleandPrincetonandbecameateacher andlecturer.Throughouthislife,unwillingtorevealpersonaldetailsbutalways willingto talkabouthis worksandthetheories whichlaybehindthem, Wilderbecamearespected figureintheavant-garde worldofliterature,eventhoughhisoutput,compared with O'Neill's,isrelativelysmall. Hisnon-realisticplays were writtenthroughouthiscareer, Interspersed with novels and afewrealistic dra mas as well. This discussion will concentrateonthe mostobviouslyillusionistplaysof TheAngelthatTroubledthe Waters, namely"Nascuntur Poetae","Proserpinaandthe Devil","Childe Rolandtothe Dark
cl 1. Burbank,p.2 1.
Tower Came","Centaurs","Leviathan","AndtheSeaShall Give Upits Dead","Nowthe Servant's Name was Malchus","Mozartandthe GreySteward","HastThou Considered MyServantJob?","TheFlightintoEgypt"and"TheAngelthatTroubledthe Waters", most of which were writtenbetweenthetime Wilder wassixteenyearsofageand whenhe hadhisfirstjobasaFrenchteacheraftergraduating,althoughthey werenotpublished until1 928 .Thethreeone-actplayspublishedin1 931 ,TheLong Christmas Dinner,The HappyJourneytoTrentonand Camden andPullman Car"Hiawatha", willbeincludedas theyshowimportantdevelopmentsinhistechnique.Finallythethree-act OurTown ( 1935 )andThe Skinof OurTeeth( 1942 )reveal Wilderattheheightofhisskill. As Lucrece( 1933 )isbasedon Andre Obey'splayLeVioldeLucreceit willnotforma major partofthepresentdiscussion,andit wasthoughtthatThe Matchmakercontained Insufficientnon-realisticdevicestobeconsideredrelevanttothistopic. Both Our Century( 1947 )and"Childhood"( 1960 )areshortplayscontaining manyofthedevices usedintheearlier majordramas;againrestrictionsofspacesuggestthata mostsuitable courseistorefertotheseplaystosupportgeneralcommentsratherthanattemptingto deal withbothindetail. Intheplayschosenas wellasfromtheauthors'comments weseethatboth dramatistshadastheir mostimportantaimthedesireto manipulatetechniques,touse non-realisticdevicesforthesimpleparadoxicalpurposeofthuspresentingthetruth.The essenceof whattheyhopedtodo wasnodifferentfromanyotherplaywright'sintention. The meaningofillusoryformsisbasictodrama,asLangeridentifiesinherthreestagesin theabstractionofformfromactuality:"first,theestablishmentofarealmofillusionby estrangementfromactuality;second,the manipulation oftheillusion;third,the emergenceof'transparency',thatis'insightintotherealitytobeexpressed' Certainlythefinalstageisidenticalto O'Neill'sand Wilder'spurpose. Allaudiencesand readersenterintothe make-believe oftheatre,suspendingtheir disbelief ofthe impossibleandtheirrational whichalldramatists mustuse.Thebasicqueriesofthis
... dig at the roots of the sickness of today as I feel it - the death of the old God and failure of science and materialism to give any satisfactory new one for the surviving primitive religious instinct to find a meaning for life in, and to comfort its fears of death with. It seems to me that anyone trying to do big work nowadays must have this big subject behind all the little subjects of his plays ...^ „ Not only was this to be a "big work", O'Neill did not flinch from using the most unusual and sometimes uncomfortable methods in his new approach. Audiences, according to Shaw, whose Quintessence of lbsenism O'Neill was familiar with, would be held by an interesting play even if the play was full of long speeches and lasted more than two hours. In 1923 when Shaw was working on the lengthy Back to Methuselah, O'Neill had started the nine-act Strange Interlude: "I will not 'stay put' ", he told Nathan, "in any comfortable niche and play the leave-well-enough-alone game. God stiffen it, I am young yet and I mean to grow! And in this faith I live: That if I have the 'guts' to ignore the megaphone men and what goes with them, to follow the dream and live for that alone, then my real significant bit of truth, and the ability to express it, will be conquered in time - not tomorrow nor the next day nor any near, easily-attained period, but after the struggle has been long enough and hard enough to merit victory."^2 Wilder was not quite so defiant, but he too felt that he had something important to say and was looking for new methods which would stimulate his audiences. He was aware that the structure of a work of art would carry the creator's intention and although, in the case of a play, the dramatist would be absent, nonetheless the author's statement should be clear to the audience "in the unfolding of the idea through the
1. Robert F. Whitman, "O'Neill's Search for a Language of the Theatre", in O'NeillA Collection of Critical Essays, edited by John Gassner, Englewood Cliffs, 1964, **p. 142.
selection of episodes and speeches".^1 Wilder believed that there was an important distinction to be drawn between the novel and the play. Because a novel takes place in the past and events are usually narrated by one person, the novelist can interfere by supplying further facts, pointing the moral and emphasising the significance of the action. By contrast a play takes place in the present and "visibly represents pure existing". 2 What it gains through increased vitality it loses through the absence of a narrator. Wilder, however, wishing to have the best of both worlds, used both conventions by introducing a narrator in the form of a Stage Manager or character who stood back from the play and instructed (albeit gently) the audience. Asked in 1957 about the purpose of drama, Wilder replied that most dramatists wanted to teach: " all the greatest dramatists, except the greatest one have precisely employed the stage to convey a moral or religious point of view concerning the action... The Greek tragic poets wrote for edification, admonition, and even for our political education. The comic tradition in the theatre carries the intention of exposing folly and curbing excess".^3 Nonetheless, Wilder admitted with humour in the same interview that his own didactic intentions were stronger than he would have wished, although his struggle with this resulted in such over-compensation that readers had found Our Town both a comfort and too hard to endure: "I've spent a large part of life trying to sit on [the didactic element], to keep it down. The pages and pages I've had to tear up. I think the struggle with it may have brought a certain kind of objectivity into my work". Certainly the characters and events of Our Town seem to be viewed as through a telescope, but the message is given to us by the Stage Manager clearly and forcibly. We know we are looking at a make-believe world, but, by making us aware of what we are doinp, the author hoped we would also see the truth that lies within it.
1. Thornton Wilder, "Some Thoughts on Playwrighting", in^ Perspectives on Drama,
2. Ibid. 3. Richard H. Goldstone, "The Art of Fiction: Thornton Wilder", Paris Review
the following action without our probably even being conscious of the parallels. Virgil Geddes' complaint that the rest of the play is merely repetitive fails to acknowledge the growth of the play:
"The first scene is excellent and opens dramatic rhythms, but the play does not continue to open; rather it closes In, and repeats through seven more scenes what was adequately conveyed in the first scene.",
A similar objection is voiced by Louis Sheaffer:
"If the play has a fault, it is predictability: once Jones has fired at the Little Formless Fears, vague creatures writhing up from the ground, the pattern is set, the course of the story is evident." 2
Predictability as such, as the author of Oedipus Rex knew, never ruined a play. On the contrary, the predictability (and after all, although we feel Jones is doomed, the actual method of his destruction still carries some element of surprise), helps give the play its remarkably intense atmosphere. O'Neill employs a number of effects which contribute to the development of the play. The actual space is viewed as through a camera lens, each scene focussing on more specific detail. The first scene of the Emperor's palace is "spacious" and "high-ceilinged" 3 , the room bare and whitewashed with the hills still safely in the distance. Scene Two takes place at the end of the plain where the Great Forest begins. The following scenes are set in the Forest with the massed blackness of the trees behind, the stage representing an ever smaller area as the forest walls begin to shrink, and the limbs of the trees meet to form a low ceiling about five feet from the ground and the ropes of creepers reach upward "to entwine the tree trunks". 4 Scene Seven presents only the foot of a gigantic tree. It is interesting to note that in spite of the above instructions in the play, Jig Cook who
**1. Virgil Geddes, The Melodramadness of Eugene O'Neill, Brookfield, 1934, p. 20.
constructed the dome set for the first performance of the play by the Provincetown Players said: "There is to be no argument about this. I've had enough from everybody. The Emperor has to have a dome. You see, Edna, it begins. .. thick forest at first ... steadily thinned out ... scene after scene ... to pure space". 1 This conclusion seems to contradict the growing claustrophobic atmosphere reflected not only in the use of space but the movement from sunlight to nightfall and the eerie moon-light. Nonetheless, the point of the organisation of the play is that O'Neill used true episodic structure to reflect his theme of the regression through fear to the primitive state. Travis Bogard sees a number of parallels between The Emperor Jones^ and Peer
face various Fears and eventually result in the discovery of their own emptiness. The monologue, the symbol of the silver bullet which acts as talisman, even the episodic structure of the play all owe a debt to lbsen's play. Nonetheless, The Emperor Jones^ is an original work, "the first major drama of the new American theatre" 2 which achieves a concentration of dramatic power through the manipulation of the underlying effects of tom-tom, light, space and time on the expanding vision of fear. The theory of drama which Virgil Geddes tries to impose on O'Neill's plays: (" ... but few of his plays reveal any imagination as to the subtler possibilities of the dramatic form ... One idea is not enough for a play. A drama is the play of several ideas, facts, theories of thought and emotion. Again and again he fastens on one idea and drives it home with unmerciful din and repetition" 3 ), simply crumbles into insignificance when one considers that even if The Emperor Jones breaks rules, it nonetheless works powerfully in the theatre. Similar complaints, that O'Neill was writing outlines without giving body to his plays, that the technique overwhelmed the substance, were levelled at most of the
**1. Sheaffer, Son and Artist, p. 31.
