The post-war Theater witnessed the alterations that the whole world underwent in the course of the Second World War. Right after the war, the European theatrical scenes were occupied by the plays of three authors. They are Tennessee Williams with his “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, Jean-Paul Sartre with “No Exit”, and Samuel Becket “Waiting for Godot”;
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Modern Theatre comes from the European Renaissance Theatre of the 16th-17th centuries that dates back to the Ancient Greek and Roman Theatre. Its foundation was laid down in England and Italy, especially by the English Renaissance Theatre between in the period between Reformation and theatre closure in 1642;
The beginning of the 19th century was swept by the never-before-seen cultural movement known as Romanticism. One of the first European dramatists who got himself involved in this process was August Schlegel that considered W. Shakespeare the greatest playwright;
Evolution of Modern Theater
With France remaining the leading cultural center in Europe in the 18th century, the theatrical changes started exactly in this country. The main alterations are caused by the economic and social changes that rise in the 1780s in France. The apogee of all these events takes place in 1789 with Great French Revolution that dethroned the Bourbons and established a new capitalist system of government. It was logical that the Enlightenment came to the end being replaced by the rising popularity of Romanticism.
The Reason and Rationalism didn't justify the expectations of the European cultural elite. The people craved for new masterpieces that would reflect the reality of new time and age. Starting with the beginning of the 19th century till the 1850s, Romanticism grows to be the leading cultural direction, while Realism becomes the main cultural trend up to the beginning of the 20th century. As a result, theatre starts to change very quickly as well. Theatre becomes experimental largely due to the capitalist nature of that time and necessity to survive. There are a lot of examples of experimental theatre, including absurdist theatre, postmodern theatre and others.
There are key figures of that century-long period, including Konstantin Stanislavski, Eugene O'neil, Harold Pinter, Samuel Beckett, Anton Chekhov, and many, many others.