Theatrical Marriages

Mary Christian's new book is aimed at readers who want to learn more about metatheatre, but it will be welcomed by a much larger group—Shavians who want to learn more about fin de siècle drama, for example—as well as anyone who enjoys reading about the history of British theater. When the Victorian period was drawing to a close, Britons were reexamining their beliefs about marriage. There were debates about economics, politics, domestic violence, emancipation, and new roles and expectations for women. Only the theater lagged behind: regarded primarily as a social space and recreational venue, it rarely served as a forum for new ideas. British audiences were content to see conventional plays based on traditional ideas about marriage.

Drawing on historical, political, social, religious, and literary sources, Christian offers a lively account of how the new ideas gradually found their way into London's theaters. Since Ibsen was one of the driving forces behind the New Drama, it's no surprise that Christian devotes an entire chapter to him. When Nora and Torvald in A Doll's House sat down to talk about their marriage, their life as husband and wife came to an end—and a new era in theater began. "To question the rightness of marriage," Christian explains, "was to destabilize theatrical tradition in lasting ways." Shaw—of course—was an important figure in this evolutionary process.

What Shaw enthusiasts may not know is that he gradually changed his mind about who Ibsen was and what he was trying to do. As a young Fabian, Shaw's viewed Ibsen primarily as a social critic, and his main focus was Ibsen's ideas about marriage. By the time Shaw started writing the Quintessence of Ibsenism, however, he had come to think of Ibsen as the founder of "a new school of dramatic art."

Another playwright who later changed her first impressions of Ibsen was Elizabeth Robins. Forty years after her first encounter with A Doll's House, she remembered that she initially responded to the play as an actor, not an activist. Swept away by the acting possibilities and human drama in Nora's story, she hailed Ibsen as a gift to female theater professionals. "If we had been thinking politically, concerning ourselves about the emancipation of women, we would not have given the Ibsen plays the particular kind of whole-hearted, enchanted devotion we did give. We were actresses. … How were we to find fault with a state of society that had given us Nora and Hedda and Thea?" It was only later that Robins became interested in Ibsen's revolutionary ideas about marriage and women.

Christian's metatheatrical approach to A Doll's House is especially interesting. We all know that Ibsen challenged conventional ideas about marriage—the outmoded belief that men belong in the world and women must remain at home, for example. But Christian also sees that the Helmers' marriage is a form of theater. Husband and wife perform for each other and for outsiders, and theater conventions help shape their identities; Torvald is the strong hero, and Nora is a helpless victim. They are living in a melodrama—until Krogstad's letter forces them to abandon make-believe and face the truth about their marriage.

Christian's book applies the idea of marriage as theater to five playwrights at the end of the nineteenth century. She explains that "theatrical marriage presented an opportunity to dramatize the uncomfortable overlap between public and private, scriptedness and spontaneity, and performance and inner self." The overriding question, of course, was whether a new marriage—and a new theater—were possible. Christian convincingly argues that the answer to both questions was yes.

What Christian calls an "ongoing conversation between playwrights" had a strong and lasting influence on British theater. Her book includes chapters about Oscar Wilde, Arthur Wing Pinero, Henry Arthur Jones, and Elizabeth Robins—along with, of course, Ibsen and Shaw. Nine plays are analyzed: Ibsen's A Doll's House, Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan, Pinero's The Second...