We have written quite a few pieces on different theatrical genres, this time we decided to give you a more general, a broader perspective. In this text we are going to review some of the top theatrical genres of all times. We won’t get into too much detail though, just the basics. You’d be surprised to see how many things are related and to theatre and drama. Even areas you never would’ve guessed have anything to do with drama. For instance, online slots and online casinos in general include a lot of dramatic elements. 

Some Popular Genres

If we are to make a list of all genres, we would be able to name over 100 different genres, but we’ll only go with the major few here.

Modernist Drama

It would make sense for the term modern drama to include only contemporary plays and theatre styles, but that isn’t the case, the phrase modernist drama describes several different styles that were developed from the half of the 19th century onwards.

It usually considered that modernism began with the works of Emile Zola. Strindberg, Hauptmann and Ibsen are also considered to be among the pioneers of the genre. The first modernist style plays were acted in France, but they soon spread throughout Europe and North America.

There was a lot of variety when it came to different plays and different play styles, with one underlying principle – all modernist plays challenged the rules of old classic theatre.

Modernist theatre was often referred to by the name independent theatre movement and since the WWI it has been an integral part of the overall theatre scene in the Western world. Some claim that anti-realism is the first and most important feature of modernist theatre.

Historical Drama

Historical drama is perhaps the first genre of theatre, or it is at least as old as theatre itself. Aeschylus describe the events of the first Greco Persian War in his drama The Persians from year 472 BC.

The main point in every history play is that it describes historical events that happened a while before the play was written or set. There are no guidelines in terms of time distance regarding the period described in the play and the actual events, but at least several years need to pass for the event to be historic and not contemporary.

The term history play to describe this genre has been used for quite a while, in fact, the editors of the folio containing Shakespeare’s dramas divided them into comedies, tragedies and histories. The word chronicle was used to describe a play where the events take place in a temporal order.

There have been a wide range of history plays, in fact, all important and popular British monarchs have been immortalised in a play.

Other Genres

The above two might be the most popular and most renowned genres, but they definitely aren’t the only two genres, parody, political theatre, postmodern theatre, revenge tragedy, kitchen sink drama, musical theatre and a lot more.

Moliere is one of the most famous playwrights in the world and his plays have been played more than any other at the Comedie-Francaise. Molier was born in a prosperous family as Jean-Baptiste Poquelin. He assumed his moniker later on in life when he began appearing in his own plays. Both owing to his craft as a playwright and because of his connections to important people, Moliere was able to stage his performances in some of the most prestigious halls at the time, like the Palais-Royal theatre, the salle du Petit-Bourbon and so on. He awed audiences with every performance and went on to become the person who was most sought after for the entertainment of the royalty and their friends. Moliere was not only a master playwright, but he was also an avid performer in his own plays and he is most famous for going to the end in one of his plays (The Imaginary Invalid) despite suffering onstage of a coughing outburst, which proved fatal just couple of hours after the play was over.

But, before he even commenced his career as a playwright and actor, Moliere had to make significant changes in his life. Being born in a well-to-do family to parents who were both well-connected, he was destined for a life in public office and he was capable of doing that. Having received a good Parisian education in the Jesuit College de Clermont, he was well-versed in the topics and conversations that were made by members of the bourgeois. Miliere decided to forgo the beaten path and go in a direction away from the niceties of the Parisian life by joining a theater troupe. The troupe went bankrupt and was soon after revamped under the lead of Moliere. Even though his father may have not approved of his son’s departure from the familiar social circles, he paid the money owed by the troupe, which helped Moliere get out of jail only after one day inside.

Moliere is an example of how any person can dedicate his or her life to the passion that feeds it. Before becoming the playwright that we all know of, Moliere spet twelve years touring the provinces of France with the troupe. It was precisely during this time when he honed his skill for writing by gathering a wide knowledge about the various types of people who would later become the parody of his plays. When he set his sails for Paris he first built up a network of acquaintances that carried his reputation in the social circles that were most likely going to attend his plays. This clever marketing paid off and Moliere became France’s quintessential playwright. That didn’t go without attracting the ire of the Catholic church, which pressured relevant officials to ban some of his plays, like Don Juan.

Before his death, Moliere wrote 19 plays, however, there is a number of plays from his days with the troupe that have been forever lost. Moliere lived the high life of a playwright and actor in a thriving Paris and went on with it until the theatrical ending of his life. They say, life is a gamble. Moliere left the comfort of his father’s social circle but made incredible gains to become one of the most famed playwrights in history. Life asks us to sometimes take a chance, or a leap of faith.

Unknown Genre

People who love theater may not be aware that there is a genre of theater plays that encompasses the literary science fiction genre. I know that if I start recounting all of the theater plays that I am aware of (those that I have seen and those that I haven’t) I am not going to come across a single science fiction play. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any. On the contrary, there are about twenty well-known plays from that genre and it is a little known fact that the word robot was introduced to popular culture through a science fiction theater play Rossum’s Universal Robots by Czech writer Karel Capek.

The First Plays

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

One of the most famous works of literature that has permeated the general awareness of mainstream culture is The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The novella, written in 1886,  was adapted into a four-act theater play by Thomas Russell Sullivan in the following year.

It is this play that portrays perhaps the first uncanny transformation of a human into a murderous, top-hat wearing  hominid who represents the degeneration of Dr. Jekyll into a lesser being. Shocked theater-goers were taken aback by the idea. Coincidentally, the play opened in London in 1888, just before the occurrence of the first murders of Jack the Ripper.

Frankenstein

The first science fiction play, however, predates Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by many years. It was Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein adapted from the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley This is the first adaptation for theater of this novel which lasted from 1823 until the 1850’s. The innovative approach taken by the play’s producer came as byproduct of the strict rules and expectations about what a play constitutes, as set by Charles II.

The Fate of Frankenstein included pantomime, music and spectacle that wooed theatre-goers and appeased the authorities. Frankenstein was so successful that it had its production in Paris, New York City and subsequently, other places around the world.

Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti

Rossum’s Universal Robots by Karel Capek was written in 1920 and first performed in 2021. The play features the production of artificial people which are made of synthetic and organic parts and components. Thusly, these people aren’t robots in the contemporary understanding of the term for robot. Capen developed these humanoids to be able to think for themselves which leads them to rise up in a rebellion, after having realized that they have been working for humans. Humankind has been wiped by a robot rebellion. Both for R.U.R. and for War with the Newts, Capek was inspired by the political changes which occurred in his time, mainly the rise of Nazism and Communism, both of which he despised and wrote against.

Universal Robot Slots Machines

As it can be seen, science fiction theatre has very early beginnings, but also not too before the appearance of what may be considered the first sci-fi film – Le Voyage dans la Lune by Georges Méliès in 1902. Today there are too many sci-fi movies to count, both short and feature, but there aren’t too many sci-fi plays.