Problem play
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The problem play is a form of drama that emerged during the 19th century as part of the wider movement of Realism in the arts. A characteristic feature of the problem play is that it deals with problematic social issues through debates between the characters on stage, who typically represent conflicting points of view within a realistic social context.
While such debates in drama were nothing new, the problem play of the nineteenth century was distinguished by the fact that the drama itself was designed to confront the spectator with the dilemmas experienced by the characters. The earliest forms of the problem play are to be found in the work of French writers such as Alexandre Dumas, fils, who most famously dealt with the subject of prostitution in La Dame aux camélias. Other French playwrights followed suit with dramas about a range of social issues, sometimes approaching the subject in a moralistic, sometimes in a sentimental manner.
The most important exponent of the problem play, however, was the Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen, whose work combined penetrating characterisation with emphasis on topical social issues, usually concentrated on the moral dilemmas of a central character. In a series of plays Ibsen addressed a range of problems, most notably the restriction of women's lives in A Doll's House, sexually transmitted disease in Ghosts and provincial greed in An Enemy of the People. Ibsen's dramas proved immensely influential, spawning variants of the problem play in works by George Bernard Shaw and other later dramatists.
The critic F. S. Boas adapted the term to characterise some plays by Shakespeare, which he considered to have characteristics similar to Ibsen's problem plays; Boas's term caught on, and Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, Timon of Athens, Troilus and Cressida, and All's Well That Ends Well may still be referred to as "Shakespeare's problem plays" .
