Theatre History Overview - Part 58 - Surrealist Theatre

Surrealist theatre mainly took place in Paris, France in the 1920s. It depicted the subconcious experience. Sometimes one idea was presented by using moody tons and disjointed structures.

Surrealist theatre moved out of the Dada theatre movement. Guillaume Apollinaire used the word surrealism to describe his 1917 play Les Mamelles de Tirésias. André Breton and Antonin Artaud were both key figures in the surrealist theatre movement.

Breton's ideas of surrealism were inspired by the works of Sigmund Freud. Breton's theories came from Freud's ideas about dreams and the subconcious mind. Artaud rejected mainstream Western theatre. He felt that theatre should be a metaphsyical and mystical experience.

Examples of surrealist plays are Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry, Arlington by Edna Walsh, and Tinderbox by Lucy Kirkwood. More surrealist plays can be found at the surrealist drama pages at Drama Online.

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