Theatre History Overview - Part 52 - Naturalistic Theatre

Naturalism developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Europe. In naturalism, the theatre tries to create the illusion of reality on stage. Naturalistic writers were influenced by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

The writers believed that social environment and heredity were the determining factors of a person's character. Naturalismm not only sought to describe characters as they would realistically be, but also to describe the "scientific" underlying forces of why they were that way and the reasons for their actions.

Naturalistic plays followed the three unities (as were mentioned in the post about neoclassical theatre. The first person to truly advocate for naturalism was Émile Zola. He did this in his 1880 work, Naturalism on the Stage. He even considered himself the leader of French naturalism.

Some well-known naturalistic works are Uncle Vanya, Woyzeck, A Doll's House, and The Cherry Orchard. These plays are still performed to this day.

If you enjoy my content, please consider becoming one one of my patrons through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheatreGeek where I will be sharing more in depth content, answering your questions, sharing which types of software I use and how to find them, and more. By becoming my patron, you allow me to create more content about theatre and more theatrical content.