In the modern theatre, a number of movements, with radical dissimilarities, share a rejection of realism and a desire to create a theatre outside its narrow confines. The first of these antirealist movements was symbolism, begun as a joint venture of artists from various fields to move beyond surface realism in order to explore inner realities that cannot be directly perceived. Using images and metaphors, the symbolists hoped to restore traditional aesthetic values of poetry, fantasy, and profundity, among others. The antirealists' search for new theatrical languages and universal themes had influenced even realist theatre makers by the turn of the century.
Movements seeking to redefine theatrical art proliferated during the first third of the twentieth century, an era rich with experimentation. Various "isms" offered credos and manifestos promising to improve art and, occasionally, the world. During the second third of the century, however, such movements lost their social character and rather than destroy realism, antirealists sought to expand theatre's potential by incorporating a mixture of dramatic styles from which they could chose at will. An era of stylized theatre emerged that did not dispense with reality but used and portrayed it in unusual ways often enhanced by symbol, metaphor, and the theatre's theatricality in the attempt to create a sharp thematic focus and bold intellectual impact.
Diversity remains a central feature of the antirealistic theatre, and a look at six of its approaches and types of plays aids the understanding of their aims and characteristics. From the emotional and "irrational" perspectives of Theatre of Cruelty to the rational and thought-provoking nature of Intellectual Comedy and Philosophical Melodrama, antirealistic approaches, such as Expressionism, Theatricalism, and the French Avant-Garde, have challenged and extended the limits of theatrical art. Through redefining the importance and function of language, extending the concept of character to include abstract forces or archetypes, reconstructing stage imagery through metaphoric scenery and lighting, and exploring themes often tinged with anxiety, such isms and stylizations have created much of the theatrical language used on today's stages.
Following World War II, many antirealistic movements dissipated or transformed. Two new ones, however, with philosophical foundations that responded to the new conditions, arose and dominated the cold war era. Theatre of the Absurd and Theatre of Alienation contrasted in many ways. The futility of all action and pointlessness of all direction pervades the Theatre of the Absurd. By self-consciously flaunting the "absurd" (ridiculous), its playwrights develop their themes theatrically. One of Western literature's leading explorers of human frailty, Samuel Beckett, created works demonstrating his belief that in all matters of importance, human beings are condemned to ignorance. Waiting for Godot, perhaps the archetypal absurdist play, offers a parable without a message. Examining another of his plays, Happy Days, about a woman partially buried in a mound of earth, reveals many of the ideas and much of the dramaturgy employed by absurdist dramas.
The second major post-World War II stylized theatre, Theatre of Alienation, is most associated with a single director-playwright-theorist, Bertolt Brecht. His impact on postwar theatre lay in his introduction of new theatre practices and with reawakening theatre's sense of social responsibility. Renouncing Artistotelian aesthetics and catharsis, Brecht sought to create a theatre that would engender a critical awareness of social and political issues. Through a number of techniques, such as masks, songs, captions, exposing lighting instruments, and an acting approach in which the actor "demonstrates" rather than embodies the character realistically, Brecht sought to "alientate" or "distance" the audience, preventing the audience from being swept away by feelings in order to view presented events critically. The impact of such antirealistic movements is such that as the twenty-first century begins, antirealist drama appears to have overcome realist drama as the major contemporary approach.
