Theatre of the 20th century and beyond  The achievements of
realism at the end of the 19th century continued to resonate
through the turn of the 21st century, but the most influential
innovations in early 20th-century theatre came from a vigorous
reaction against realism. Just as the visual arts exploded into
a chaos of experiment and revolt, generating numerous styles and
“isms,” so the theatre seized upon a variety of sources to
express the contradictions of the new age. Inspiration was
sought in machines and technology, Asian theatre, Symbolism,
nihilism, the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, and the shock of
a world war that spawned widespread disillusionment and
alienation. The results of this eclecticism were often anarchic
and exhilarating: designers and directors were as influential as
playwrights, though relatively little drama of lasting value was
produced. Nevertheless, such experiments set the tone and
widened the theatrical vocabulary for all the innovations that
followed.  The beginnings of the r