Dramatic Breakups

Modern drama keeps on breaking up. From the moment a stage door slammed shut on a failed marriage in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House (1879), dramatic breakups no longer seemed the purview of tragedy, but rather a harbinger of new social potentialities. Modern stages helped to invent the notion of the romantic breakup that we have received today, and yet love was not all that shattered in the modern theater. After rupturing romances, modern playwrights went on to fracture families, upend political institutions, demolish scenic spaces, and ultimately, explode the form of drama itself. This course provides an introduction to twentieth and twenty-first century theater by surveying the many things that it breaks: hearts, homes, ideologies, and dramatic forms. We will examine the contention that drama, as a form in which conflict and transformation are vividly enacted, provides a critical lens for examining the dissolution of relationships at a wide range of scales, including the national, imperial, and ecological. In our encounters with diverse dramatic materials from the late nineteenth century to the present, we will explore how, when, and towards what end drama reimagined itself as “modern.” Students will read approximately two plays each week and will have the option to present a creative response to our course materials at the conclusion of the semester.