Kitchen Sink Realism
Author: Dorothy Chansky
Genre: non-fiction
Published: 2015
Rating: B
Domestic labor has figured largely on American stages.
The genre “kitchen sink realism” both supports and challenges
the idea that the home is naturally women’s sphere.
1920’s – popular plays staged the plight of women seeking escape from the daily domestic grind
Ambush (1921)
1930’s– recognized housework as work!
Awake and Sing (1935)
1950’s – maids gained a complexity previously reserved only for leading ladies.
Member of the Wedding (1950)
1960’s – problems and comforts of domestic labor in homes took center stage.
Raisin in the Sun (1960)
Conclusion:
This is comprehensive analysis of kitchen and sink realism. Dorothy Chansky highlights plays that I never heard of – Mine Eyes Have Seen (1918), – Aftermath (1919) – and it took some effort to immerse myself in them. Chansky discusses more than 20 different plays! I did discover 2 female playwrights I would like to read:
Rachel Crothers – one of the most successful dramatists first part of 20th C.
Georgia Douglas Johnson – one of the earliest African-American playwrights. She was a participant in Harlem Renaissance.
If you are interested in drama and the societal impact these plays have had in the 20th C…this book is for you!
Good review, thank you.
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Thanks for you kind words….! I love to read plays and kitchen sink genre has a long history depicting working-class domestic life. In the 21st C some playwrights are writing a new genre “in yer face drama’ depicting sex, violence, drug taking and ‘street life’ in general. I just finished a great play by Mary Anne Butler (Australian) ‘Broken’. Review is on Goodreads. The play was magnificent!
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