Reductionism in Drama and the Theatre. (PDF)

Introduction (p. 1)

The development of twentieth-century drama is characterized by a deliberate dissociation from those forms, structures, and subject matters which used to provide thé blueprints and building materials for playwrights of earlier periods.

Never before has so much energy been expended on questioning, modifying, reorganizing, and even obliterating an art form which has held such a secure place in thé history of our culture for so long. While différent schools of thought hâve been successful in explaining this dissociation by linking it to différent causes (social and political change, for example, displeasure with traditional modes of expression, a changing concept of man and his place in thé universe), much remains unexplored and unexplained.

Thus, for instance, we still know little about thé interrelation between a playwright`s intentions and thé dramatic format chosen to give them expression, or about thé relationship between thé duration of a dramatic présentation and its intensity.

In fact, it seems that thé opening-up of drama to a whole new range of possibilities, effected by thé dissociation from its long tradition, has magnified thé confusion about its essential nature and has caused considérable insecurity as to its typological status. The extraordinary prolifération of generic descriptions attached to twentieth century plays offers some indication of that confusion and insecurity.

At its conception, this study began as an investigation into one particular aspect of thé révolution in twentieth-century drama the unusually fréquent occurrence of formally and structurally "reduced" plays.

Sometimes called "minimalist drama," thèse are plays which pay ordy scant tribute to Aristotle`s demand for a "certain magnitude" and which deliberately defy many of our accepted beliefs about thé nature and, especially, thé scope of a theatrical expérience.

As many of thé formai and structural éléments which are

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