The Night of the Iguana

In the mid-1940s, a new type of uniquely American drama began appearing on Broadway. This so-called “American style” was a response to a world that was forever changed by World War II and the accompanying shift from a modernist to post-modern ethos. The modern era in theater began in the late 19th century as artists responded to the vast societal changes and sense of alienation brought about by the Industrial Revolution and increasing prevalence of crowded city life. Modernism is marked by several deliberate and distinct artistic movements constructed to counter the then-pervasive romanticism movement. It began with movements such as realism and naturalism, and continued with the advent of concepts such as Dadaism, Surrealism, Futurism, Symbolism, Expressionism, and Theater of Cruelty. With World War I (1914-1918), these movements intensified the overall sense of alienation, which now extended to war and the horrors of efficient, mechanized death. New technologies made the world smaller through improved travel and communication, but they also facilitated a new kind of war that engaged most of the globe. Among these new technologies were weaponry that anonymized killing, allowing a soldier to inflict mass casualties without coming into direct contact with the opposing forces. World War I was initially called the Great War, and it was widely touted as the war that would end all wars.

Twenty years later, a second world war would break out. Not only did a World War II suggest the possibility of additional global conflicts, but it also brought about a previously unimaginable level of inhumanity and disregard for human life. The liberation of Nazi concentration camps near the end of the war revealed the Nazis’ horrifically efficient mechanisms for killing innocent civilians and survivors who had been pushed past the very limits of human suffering. Then, with the invention of the atomic bomb and the subsequent annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the blood of up to 226,000 Japanese people—mostly civilians—was on the hands of the U.S. government. Moreover, the existence of the atomic bomb and the start of the Cold War led to the philosophy that life itself was not just fragile; it was meaningless and easily discarded. To add to this existential crisis, from a capitalist standpoint, the war had played a major role in lifting the country out of the Great Depression. In a reaction to this confluence of tumultuous world events post-modern, post-war theater stepped away from the conscious movements of modernism. Modernist movements were based on specific structures, conventions, and rules, each with the belief that these systematic artistic styles were a way to reach an elusive but existing truth. In the post-modern worldview, there is no objective truth, and Williams’s work reflects this attitude.

Broadway, which had primarily been the domain for splashy spectacles and musical comedies, suddenly made room for serious drama. Although trends certainly occurred, playwrights who wrote in what came to be called “the American style” rejected formalist structures and produced work that was influenced by modernist movements but did not adhere to all of their conventions. The two most prominent playwrights of this post-modern style were Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. Their works had a foundation in realism, which had been popular on the American stage and combines psychological realism, naturalistic dialogue, an intact fourth wall, and the avoidance of fantastic or supernatural elements. The key focus of such works is to reveal or address a social issue or condition. However, these plays also incorporated modernist influences. For instance, The Glass Menagerie (1944) has realistic characters and conditions but also contains elements of surrealism and expressionism to depict the blurriness and subjectivity of memory. Williams argued for what he called “plastic theater,” in which all elements of staging—scenery, staging, acting, lights, music, and colors—should be shaped to serve and enhance the play’s action and themes. This may seem unremarkable from a 21st-century perspective, but this notion was revolutionary for its time and became central to “the American style,” leading to a new era of design and a holistic approach to creating a multidimensional theater.