Problem play

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1. Prof . R. R. Borse , Asst.Prof ., Eng.Dept ., B.P.Arts,S.M.A. Sci ., K.K.C.Com.College,Chalisgaon Problem play

2. # Problem Play is not for entertainment… # It is quite serious business… # Art for art’s sake… # Problem play believes Art for the sake of society

3. Problem Play deals with current social issues through debates between the characters on stage, who typically represent conflicting points of view within a realistic social context.

4. It is a term commonly used to describe a play which examines a specific social or political problem with the aim of igniting public debate.

5. Towards the end of the Victorian age the drama of social problems came into prominence in England. The problem play was the presentation of a contemporary question through realistic technique. The dramatists writing plays of social criticism made a conscious effort to deal with problems of contemporary society and morality.

6. The drama which was directly inspired by the social ferment of the time could be effective only if it adopted a realistic form or medium, because problem drama required a high level of craftsmanship and dramaturgic skill.

7. It was a new experiment in form and technique, and dispensed with the conventional devices and expedients of the Victorian era, was closely related to the growth of the realistic movement in the field of English drama.

8. The term “problem play” was coined by Sydney Grundy who used it in a disparaging sense for the intellectual drama of the nineties.

9. Shaw defined it as “The presentation parable of the conflict between man’s will and his movement”.

10. Eric Bentley finds the justification of the word ‘problem ’ on the ground that the play ends with a question mark . He says that the dramatist’s business is to state his problem clearly and effectively, and not to present a readymade solution or to suggest a specific remedy.

11. Notable examples are …. Ibsen's A Doll's House (1879), questioning the subordination of women in marriage; Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession (1902), examining attitudes towards prostitution; and Galsworthy's Justice (1910), exposing the cruelties of solitary confinement and the legal system.

12. Some plays by later writers such as A. Wesker , J. McGrath, Caryl Churchill, H. Brenton , and D. Hare also raise contemporary issues, often using drama as a wider canvas

13. George Bernard Shaw had the longest career in the history of English dramatics. He was a moralist and a propagandist . His first play widower's Houses (1892) was “an economic tract in dramatic form”, but it failed on the stage. His collection of seven plays – Plays Pleasant And Unpleasant – appeared in 1898 in which he voiced his idea on a many social problem.

14. Galsworthy occupies a distinctive place in modern English drama. His naturalism reminds us of Ibsen. He is a critic and interpreter of contemporary English life in his dramas. Like Shaw, he handles definite problems – these of marriage, of sex relationship, of labour disputes, of the law, of solitary confinement, of caste feeling or class prejudice. His The silver Box (1906) deals with the inequality of justice. We see how the majesty of the law may end in a horrible human mistake. Justice (1910) is a stern condemnation of the contemporary legal system . It attacks the evil of prison system especially the solitary confinement. It is a powerful plea for sympathetic treatment of law – breakers.

15. The problem play was neglected in the 19th century, yet it was not an outcast in the early 20th century . It was unquestionably the fruit of a strong dissatisfaction with the existing conditions of life . It directed attention to the facts and problems of social life. Some of the problem plays proved so effective that they imbued men’s minds with a passionate resentment against social injustice mobilized public opinion in favor of prison reform and hastened legislative action.