A Sourcebook on Naturalist Theatre
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1844 Friedrich Hebbel: Mary Magdalen. John Stuart Mill: Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy. Karl Marx meets Friedrich Engels in Paris.
1845 Anna Cora Mowatt: Fashion; or, Life in New York. Margaret Fuller: Woman in the Nineteenth Century – a call for women’s equality; Friedrich Engels: The Condition of the Working Class in England. Published in Leipzig. British defeat Sikhs in the Punjab, in the First Sikh War (1845–1846).
1848 Emile Augier: L’Aventurière. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: The Communist Manifesto. The Thrane movement for reform in Norway (1848–1851); the Year of Revolutions in Europe.
1849 Eugène Scribe: Adrienne Lecouvreur. Johan August Strindberg is born; Dostoyevsky is sentenced to four years in a labor camp at Omsk; Richard Wagner participates in Dresden revolt and is forced to flee to Zurich.
1850 Henrik Ibsen: The Burial Mound; Catiline; Ivan Turgenev: A Month in the Country. Prussia and Denmark sign the Peace of Berlin on Schleswig-Holstein.
1851 Henrik Ibsen: Norma, or a Politician’s Love. Anon.: On the Enfranchisement of Women (attributed to Harriet Taylor).
1852 Charles Kean stages Macbeth.
1853 Henrik Ibsen: St. John’s Night.
1854 Heinrich Geobel, German watchmaker, invents first form of the electric light bulb. Law passed to give women equal inheritance rights in Norway; Crimean War (1854–1856).
1855 Dumas fils : Le Demi-Monde; Henrik Ibsen: Lady Inger. David E. Hughes invents the printing telegraph. Czar Nicholas I of Russia dies and is succeeded by Alexander II.
1856 Henrik Ibsen: The Banquet at Solhaug. Bernard Shaw is born. Britain annexes Oudh, India, and establishes Natal as a Crown colony.
1857 Henrik Ibsen: Olaf Liljekrans. Alexander II appoints Secret Committee to plan the abolishment of serfdom in Russia.
1858 Henrik Ibsen: The Vikings at Helgeland.
1859 Charles Darwin: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection; Karl Marx: Critique of Political Economy; John Stuart Mill: Essay on Liberty. King Oscar I of Sweden dies and is succeeded by Charles XV
1860 Dion Boucicault: The Colleen Baum; Alexander Ostrovski: The Storm. Anton Chekhov is born; Christopher L. Sholes invents an early form of the typewriter.
1861 Eugène Scribe: (1791–1861) dies; Vladimir Dahl: Dictionary of the Living Russian Tongue (1861–1866). Manifesto on emancipation of serfs published in Russia; peasant and student unrest in Russia (1861–1862).
1862 Sarah Bernhardt débuts at the Comédie Française in Racine’s Iphigénie en Aulide; Henrik Ibsen: Love’s Comedy. Activity of secret revolutionary organization Zemlia I Volia (Land and Freedom) in Russia (1862–1863).
1863 Henrik Ibsen: The Pretenders. John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism. Law passed in Norway to give unmarried women independence from male guardians; Frederick VII, King of Denmark, dies and is succeeded by Christian IX.
1864 Louis Pasteur invents pasteurization.
1865 David Belasco (aged 12): Jim Black, or The Regulator’s Revenge; T.W. Robertson: Society; Emile Zola: Madeleine. Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde; Claude Bernard: Introduction à l’étude de la médecine experimentale. Russian conquest of Central Asia (1865–1885).
1866 Henrik Ibsen: Brand. Fydor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment; Henry Irving makes his London début; Alfred Nobel invents dynamite; Robert Whitehead invents underwater torpedo; “Black Friday” on the London Stock Exchange. Law created in Norway to allow women the right to work in any trade or profession; attempt on Alexander II’s life in Russia by Karakozov; Prussia annexes Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark.
1867 Henrik Ibsen: Peer Gynt; T.W. Robertson: Caste. Karl Marx: Das Kapital; John Stuart Mill: Admission of Women to Electorial Franchise; Émile Zola: Thérèse Raquin (novel). Russia sells Alaska and the Aleutian Islands to the United States for $7,200,000.
1868 Georg Brandes: Aesthetic Studies; Fydor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky: The Idiot; Elizabeth Cady and Susan B. Anthony found the women’s rights periodical, The Revolution.
1869 Henrik Ibsen: The League of Youth. John Stuart Mill: On the Subjection of Women.
1870 The Saxe-Meiningen Players produce William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Married Women’s Property Act in Britain allows married women to keep £200 of their own earnings; Education Act in Britain provides elementary education for girls as well as boys; Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871).
1871 Alexander Ostrovski: The Forest; August Strindberg: The Outlaw. Georg Brandes: Inaugural Lecture.
1872 Eleonora Duse (age 14) makes her début in Verona as Juliet; Henry Irving stages The Bells. First Russian translation of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. Ballot Act in Britain legislates voting by secret ballot.
1873 Émile Zola: Thérèse Raquin; Henrik Ibsen: Emperor and Galilean.
1874 The Saxe-Meiningen Players’ first tour of Germany; Victorien Sardou: La Haine. First Impressionist Salon; Paris Opéra opens.
1875 Victorien Sardou: Ferréol. London Medical School for Women is founded.
1876 The Saxe-Meiningen Players perform Ibsen’s The Pretenders in Berlin; Wagner’s theatre, Bayreuth Festspielhaus, opens and performs The Ring. Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone. “Land and Freedom” populist secret society established in Russia.
1877 Henrik Ibsen: The Pillars of Society. Thomas Edison invents the phonograph; Emile Zola: UAssommoir. Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878); Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India.
1878 Emile Augier: Les Fourchambeault; Anton Chekhov: Platonov. Henry Irving takes control of the Lyceum Theatre in London.
1879 Henrik Ibsen: A Doll’s House. Jules Bastien-Lepage paints “Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt”; Friedrich Nietzsche: Birth of Tragedy; Thomas Edison invents electric light; August Strindberg: The Red Room. “Land and Freedom” split into “People’s Will” and “Black Partition” in Russia.
1880 Henry Irving stages The Corsican Brothers. Fydor Mikhailovich Dostevsky: The Brothers Karamozov; Émile Zola: Naturalism in the Theatre.
1881 August Strindberg: Master Olaf. Electric lighting introduced in British theatres; Emile Zola’s theatre reviews are published in two volumes. Alexander II assassinated in Russia.
1882 Henrik Ibsen: Ghosts; Henry Becque: The Crows; Victorien Sardou: Fédora. The Peasant Bank is founded in Russia. Married Women’s Property Act in Britain is expanded to enable women the right to own and administer their own property.
1883 Henrik Ibsen: An Enemy of the People at the Royal Theatre in Stockholm; August Strindberg: Lucky Peter’s Travels. Deutsches Theater, Berlin, is founded.
1884 Henrik Ibsen: The Wild Duck; Anton Chekhov: On the Highroad. Bernard Shaw becomes a founding member of Britain’s Socialist Fabian Society. Married Women’s Property Act in Britain deems that women are no longer “chattel” but are autonomous people.
1885 Émile Zola: Germinal.
1886 Henrik Ibsen: Rosmersholm; Henrik Ibsen: Ghosts staged by The Saxe-Meiningen Players in Germany; Anton Chekhov: The Swan Song; Lev Tolstoi: Power of Darkness (banned in Russia until 1895). Émile Zola: L’Œuvre; Bernard Shaw: Cashel Byron’s Profession.
1887 Henrik Ibsen: The Pillars of Society; August Strindberg: The Father; Victorien Sardou: La Tosca (written for Sarah Bernhardt); Anton Chekhov: Ivanov. Émile Zola: La Terre; André Antoine founds the Théâtre Libre in Paris. “Bloody Sunday” in Britain; Social Democratic Federation meeting in Trafalgar Square is quashed by police and military troops in London.
1888 André Antoine with the Saxe-Meiningen Players; Henrik Ibsen: The Lady from the Sea; August Strindberg: Miss Julie. Émile Zola: La Rève; “Jack the Ripper” murders six women in London; Anton Chekhov is awarded the Pushkin Prize.
1889 Henrik Ibsen: First English production of A Dolll’s House; Freie Bühne is founded in Berlin by Otto Brahm and stages Gerhart Hauptmann’s Before Dawn; August Strindberg’s Scandinavian Experimental Theatre is founded; Anton Chekhov: The Wood Demon. Bernard Shaw: Fabian Essays; Théatres Moderne, Independent, Libre Ancien and d’Applic a
re founded in Paris. London Dock strike.
1890 Henrik Ibsen: Ghosts staged by Théâtre Libre; Henrik Ibsen: Hedda Gabler. Bernard Shaw: Quintessence of Ibseni; Le Théâtre Libre manifesto; The Saxe-Meiningen Players tour through Europe. William II and Alexander III meet at Narva.
1891 Henrik Ibsen: Wild Duck staged by Théâtre Libre; Victorien Sardou: Thermidor; The Symbolist Théâtre d’Art produces Maeterlinck’s Intruder and The Blind. W.L. Judson invents the clothing zipper (not in common use until 1919); work on the Trans-Siberian railway begins; John T. Grein founds the Independent Theatre Club in London. British military takes Nyasaland; winter famine in Russia.
1892 Henrik Ibsen: The Master Builder; Maurice Maeterlinck: Pelléas and Mélisande; Gerhart Hauptmann: The Weavers staged by Freie Bühne; Bernard Shaw: Widowers’ Houses staged by the Independent Theatre Club. William Morris: News from Nowhere. Strikes and massacres of workers in Russia.
1893 Bernard Shaw: Mrs Warren’s Profession (first produced by The Stage Society in 1902); Florence Bell: Alan’s Wife; Oscar Wilde: A Woman of No Importance; Arthur Pinero: The Second Mrs. Tanqueray; Gerhart Hauptmann: The Weavers staged by Théâtre Libre; August Strindberg: Miss Julie staged by Théâtre Libre. Sigmund Freud (with Charcot): On the Psychical Mechanism of Hysterical Phenomena; Théâtre d’Œuvre founded in France. Britain’s Independent Labour party is founded.
1894 Bernard Shaw: Arms and the Man; August Strindberg: Father is staged by Théâtre d’Œuvre; Constance Fletcher: Mrs Lessingham ; Dorothy Leighton: Thyrza Fleming. Thomas Edison opens his Kinetoscope Parlour in New York; Benoit-Constant Coquelin: L’Art du comédien is published. Local Government Act in Britain: women are eligible to vote for parochial councils; Nicholas II becomes Czar in Russia.
1895 Janet Achurch: Mrs Daintree’s Daughter; Oscar Wilde: An Ideal Husband; Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest; Henrik Ibsen: Little Eyolf opens in Berlin; Bernard Shaw: Candida. Oscar Wilde: unsuccessful libel action against Marquis of Queensberry and in a sensational trial found guilty of homosexuality; Auguste and Louis Lumière invent a motion-picture camera; Wilhelm Röntgen discovers x-rays; Adolphe Appia: Mise-en-scène in Wagnerian Drama is published. Vladimir Illich Lenin becomes an active member of the Russian Social Democratic party and is exiled to Siberia (1895–1900).
1896 Anton Chekhov: The Seagull; Alfred Jarry: Ubu Roi is staged by Théâtre d’Œuvre. Olympic Games are reestablished and hosted by Athens.
1897 Bernard Shaw: The Devil’s Disciple; Bernard Shaw: You Never Can Tell; Henrik Ibsen: John Gabriel Borkman. August Strindberg: autobiography, Inferno; Théâtre Antoine, the successor to Théâtre Libre is founded; The Irish Literary Theatre is founded; Moscow Art Theatre is founded. Winter famine in Russia.
1898 Moscow Art Theatre’s first production (A. Tolstoi’s Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich); Moscow Art Theatre produces The Seagull. Émile Zola publishes open letter to the President of France, “J’accuse”, and is imprisoned. Manhood suffrage in Norway.
1899 Anton Chekhov: Uncle Vanya is produced by the Moscow Art Theatre; Bernard Shaw: Caesar and Cleopatra staged by Mrs Patrick Campbell; The Stage Society is founded and produces Bernard Shaw’s You Never Can Tell; August Strindberg: Gustav Vasa; August Strindberg: Erik XIV. Adolphe Appia: Music and Stage Scenery. The Boer War (1899–1902).
1900 George Bernard Shaw: Captain Brassbound’s Conversion; August Strindberg: To Damascus. Sigmund Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams. Britain’s Independent Labour party becomes the Labour Representation Committee.
1901 Eugène Brieux: Maternité is banned; Anton Chekhov: The Three Sisters is produced by the Moscow Art Theatre; August Strindberg: The Dance of Death. Nobel Prize established. Queen Victoria dies and is succeeded by Edward VII; women’s suffrage in local elections in Norway.
1902 Harley Granville Barker: The Marrying of Ann Leete; Maksim Gorki: The Lower Depths; émile Zola: La Terre staged by Théâtre Antoine; August Strindberg: A Dream Play; Maurice Maeterlinck: Monna Vanna; W.B. Yeats: Cathleen Ni Houlihan Vladimir Illich Lenin: What Is to Be Done?; Leon Trotsky escapes from a Siberian prison and setdes in London; Kleines Theater is founded by Max Reinhardt in Berlin; Otodziro Kawakami’s Japanese theatre company tours to Moscow. Socialist Revolutionary party is formed to protest peasant interests in Russia.
1903 Gerhart Hauptmann: Rose Bernd; Bernard Shaw: Man and Superman; August Strindberg: Queen Christina; Victorien Sardou: Dante (written for Henry Irving). Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully fly an engine-powered airplane; Bjørnsterne Bjørnson wins the Nobel Prize for Literature; Women’s Social and Political Union is started in Britain by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. Their agenda is to champion ardently for women’s suffrage (‘suffragettes’). Russian Social Democratic party splits into Bolshevik and Menshevik sects.
1904 James Barrie: Peter Pan; Bernard Shaw: John Bull’s Other Island; Anton Chekhov: The Cherry Orchard is produced at the Moscow Art Theatre. Georg Fuchs: The Stage of the Future; Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) dies; Abbey Theatre is founded; Dublin English Stage Society founded. Russo-Japanese war (first use of trenches); Britain and France form the Entente Cordiale, settling some disputes over colonial land.
1905 David Belasco: Girl of the Golden West; Harley Granville Barker: The Voysey Inheritance; Maurice Maeterlinck: The Blue Bird; Bernard Shaw: Major Barbara. Gordon Craig: The Art of the Theatre; Henry Irving (1838–1905) dies; Albert Einstein formulates his Special Theory of Relativity; Sigmund Freud: Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex; Vsevolod Meyerhold founds the Moscow Art Studio Theatre. Union between Norway and Sweden is dissolved; Bloody Sunday in Russia; October Manifesto in Russia establishes reforms; The crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny.
1906 Henrik Ibsen: Ghosts is staged by André Antoine; Elizabeth Robins: Votes for Women! The Symbolist journal The Golden Fleece appears in Russia; Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) dies; Max Reinhardt founds the Kammerspielhaus in Berlin. Britain’s Labour Representation Committee becomes the Labour party
1907 Harley Granville Barker: Waste; August Strindberg: The Ghost Sonata; John Synge: The Playboy of the Western World; The first “Ziegfeld Follies” is staged in New York. First Symbolist exhibition, Blue Rose, is held in Moscow; August Strindberg founds the Intimate Theatre in Stockholm; first cubist exhibition is held in Paris; Vladimir Illich Lenin: leaves Russia and starts the newspaper, The Proletarian; first English Repertory theatre founded in Manchester. Female suffrage in Norway (1907–1913); Oscar II, King of Sweden, dies and is succeeded by Gustavus V
1908 Bernard Shaw: Getting Married. Actresses’ Franchise League is founded in Britain.
1909 Harley Granville Barker: The Madras House; John Galsworthy: Strife; D.H. Lawrence: A Collier’s Friday Night (first staged in 1968). Diaghilev’s first season of the Ballets Russes in Paris.
1910 Max Reinhardt directs Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex; Bernard Shaw: Misalliance; John Galsworthy: Justice. Workers’ Theatre Movement is founded in Britain. Violence in the women’s suffrage movement in Britain including demonstrations, arson attacks and picture slashing. The government asserts that it will only deal with women’s suffrage as part of a wider extension of the franchise. Prisoners mount hunger strikes; King Edward VII dies and is succeeded by George V
1911 Max Reinhardt directs Everyman in Berlin; Konstantin Stanislavsky directs Hamlet at the Moscow Art Theatre in a production designed by Gordon Craig; Bernard Shaw: Fanny’s First Play; D.H. Lawrence: The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd (staged by The Stage Society in 1926). Vasily Kandinsky and Franz Marc found “Blue Rider” in Munich, Germany; first manifesto of the Futurists in Italy; Maurice Maeterlinck wins the Nobel Prize for Literature; Emile Jacques-Dalcroze establishes his institute for the teaching of eurthythmics at Hellerau, Germany.
1912 Somerset Maugham: The Land of Promise; Bernard Shaw: Androcles and the Lion opens in Berlin; Bernard Shaw: Overruled. August Strindberg (1849–1912) dies; William Archer: Play-Making: A Manual of Craftsmanship; Vaslav Nijinsky choreographs
and directs L’Après-midi d’un faune in Paris, the score is composed by Debussy; Vsevolod Meyerhold: On Theatre; Gerhart Hauptmann wins the Nobel Prize for Literature; C.G. Jung: The Theory of Psychoanalysis; The S. S. Titanic sinks. First issue of Pravda, the Bolshevik paper, appears in Russia; Balkan Wars begin.
1913 Bernard Shaw: Pygmalion; Georg Büchner: Woyzeck (written 1837). Postimpressionism and Cubism introduced in New York at the “Armory Show”; Jacques Copeau founds Vieux-Colombier (Old Dovecote). Women are granted the right to vote in Norway.
1914 Elmer Rice: On Trial (the first play to use flashbacks); Bernard Shaw: Androcles and the Lion Margaret Sanger coins the term “birth control”; Bernard Shaw: Commonsense About the War; Provincetown Players founded. World War I (1914–1918); Britain declares war on Germany, Austria, and Turkey; suffragette riots in London; the Panama Canal opens.
1916 Luigi Pirandello: It Is So …; William Butler Yeats: At the Hawk’s Well; Eugene O’Neill: Bound East for Cardiff staged by The Provincetown Players. Cabaret Voltaire opens in Zurich; Tristan Tzara publishes first “Dada” manifesto. Easter Rising in Dublin is suppressed; the Russian Czar abdicates.
1917 Erik Satie: Parade. Surrealist sets and costumes designed by Pablo Picasso; Somerset Maugham: Our Betters. Sarah Bernhardt (age 72) begins her last tour of the United States; C.G. Jung: Psychology of the Unconscious. October (Bolshevik) Revolution in Russia; Soviet power is established.
1918 Bertolt Brecht: Baal; James Joyce: Exiles. Theater Guild of New York is founded by Lawrence Langer. Representation of the People Act in Britain allows women over thirty to vote. Rights to vote given in local elections on similar terms; women entitied to become MPs in Britain; Turkey surrenders; Allies grant armistice to Austria, and then to Germany; German revolution begins; Kaiser abdicates.
1919 Bernard Shaw: Heartbreak House. The film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is made in Germany; Vsevolod Meyerhold sentenced to death; he escapes and joins the Red Army; George Pierce Baker: Dramatic Technique; Max Reinhardt founds Grosses Schauspielhaus in Berlin. Sex Disqualification Removal Act in Britain opens all professions to women with the exception of the Church; Lady Astor becomes the first woman MP in Britain to take her seat; Paris Peace Conference begins; Irish Free State is declared.