o

Definition and Origins

A problem play (also called thesis play, discussion play, or comedy of ideas) is a modern dramatic form built around a specific social or ideological issue. It emerged in the later nineteenth-century English theatre, was popularized on the Continent by Henrik Ibsen, and flourished in Britain from the closing years of that century into the early decades of the next.

Key Characteristics

A problem play treats serious, usually contemporary subjects without reaching the tragic extremes of classical tragedy. Its tone is sober, its episodes rarely exist solely to amuse, and its chief aim is openly didactic: to diagnose a social ill and propose a remedy. Intellectual debate often replaces physical action, giving the genre its reputation for propagandist intent.

Subtype: Discussion Play

In the discussion play the issue is presented less through plot than through extended debate among characters. Shaw’s “Getting Married” and “Man and Superman” exemplify this form, in which sparkling dialogue substitutes for overt dramatic action.

Major Playwrights and Works

Ibsen supplied the model; Henry Arthur Jones (“Saints and Sinners”, “Mrs Dane’s Defence”) and Sir Arthur Pinero (“The Second Mrs Tanqueray”) introduced it to England. Bernard Shaw, deeply indebted to Ibsen, sustained the genre for over four decades, beginning with “Widowers’ Houses”. His notable problem plays include “Mrs Warren’s Profession” (prostitution), “Arms and the Man” (war and marriage), and “The Doctor’s Dilemma” (medical ethics). Certain later works such as “Heartbreak House” and “Back to Methuselah” move beyond social questions toward broader philosophical ideas.

John Galsworthy, though less intellectually sharp than Shaw, continued the tradition in works like “Strife” (capital-labour conflict), “The Skin Game” (old gentry versus new industrialists), “Justice” and “The Silver Box” (biases of the legal system). Harley Granville-Barker, the last eminent practitioner, produced “The Voysey Inheritance”, “The Madras House”, and the once-censored “Waste”.

Thematic Focus

Typical subjects include prostitution, inadequate housing, labour unrest, and other pressing social inequities, but the form can expand to metaphysical concerns such as Shaw’s concept of the “Life Force”, an evolutionary energy driving human progress.

Critical Observations

The term “problem play” was coined disparagingly by Sydney Grundy, who feared the genre’s challenge to prevailing attitudes. Critics note that the form’s reliance on debate can weaken dramatic action; Shaw’s wit often masks this weakness, whereas Galsworthy’s dialogue, lacking similar vitality, exposes it more starkly. Even so, the problem play’s combination of diagnosis and prescription made it a powerful theatrical tool for social commentary in the modern stage.