The avant-garde and the unAmerican: Experimental theatre and drama from Europe to the United States after World War II

Abstract

Since the inception of the absurd, avant-garde drama has continued to be written. Yet in the late 1960s we entered the era of postmodernism, in which two events inhibited the advance of the avant-garde. The first is the embrace by postmodern playwrights of a stylistic pluralism, an eclectic and often self-reflexive mixing of different styles from different periods. The second was, and is, the postmodern deification of 'performance' through the merging of author and director in a single 'superstar' and through the breaking down of boundaries between dramatic forms and performance styles, between styles and periods and between the arts themselves. Struggling within the confines of a self-reflexive, formal orientation and against an ill-defined social context of liberal and diffusive pluralism, the American avant-garde has attempted to display a creative and critical vitality, but has raised only minimal expectations. It countenances an active and often aggressive assertion of individual will, yet betrays an uneasy acquiescence and resignation. Its most significant efforts continue to involve the self-conscious exploration of the nature, limits and possibilities of drama and theatre in contemporary society, but the vision of the future provided by such work is tentative and unclear, as if the avant-garde dare not move beyond doubt and distrust towards an inspired vision.