History FairForItsDay / Theatre

* ''Theatre/{{Carousel}}'': Modern audiences tend to find it disturbing that Julie could consider staying with a man who hits her. At the time it was written, though, what was unpalatable to the audience was that she would ''admit to being abused'' at all.

** ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' is about a black man who suspects his white wife is cheating on him and chokes her to death. In the original story on which the play was based, however, the Moorish character doesn't even have a name, and it ends with Desdemona [[AuthorFilibuster lecturing the audience]] on why interracial marriage is evil. In his adaptation, Shakespeare gives the Moor a name and fully fleshes out his character into a sympathetic war hero who is intelligent and sensitive enough to woo Desdemona with poetry. Shakespeare also has the character of The Ensign, here called [[ManipulativeBastard Iago]], serve as the play's villain, a white man who manipulates Othello into a jealous rage ForTheEvulz, and Iago ends the play with getting arrested for his crimes against Othello. The only overtly racist elements of the play are spoken by Iago and Roderigo, the two most unsympathetic characters.

** ''Theatre/MadamaButterfly'' and ''Lakme'' were both stories about innocent women from the East being taken advantage of by men from the West. Nowadays, some people consider them mildly racist for their portrayal of Asian female stereotypes. But at the time, they were a rather loud reproach to Western people for their WhiteMansBurden mentality toward Asian people and their culture. Pinkerton's and Gerald's treatment of Butterfly and Lakme respectively was repellent to any decent person, and probably more than one person left the opera house rethinking their ideas of Western superiority.

** The world premiere of Gruenberg's adaptation of ''Theatre/TheEmperorJones'' featured (white) American baritone Lawrence Tibbett in {{Blackface}}. But the thing is, it also featured actual black dancers from Hemsley Winfield's New Negro Art Theater. The Met management was originally going to feature white dancers in {{Blackface}}, but Tibbett demanded that Winfield's dance troupe be included or he (Tibbett) would back out of the production. Thus Hemsley Winfield's dance troupe, while mostly uncredited, were the first black artists to appear on the stage of the Met, but it wasn't until 1955 when Marian Anderson became the first black singer on that same stage.
* Minstrel shows are remembered today as the origin of {{Blackface}} and all the nasty things that entails, which it is, but credit where credit's due:

** To try and stymie the stereotype of Black people as barbaric savages, all black characters would be dressed in the most dapper outfits possible.

** ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'' has created a great deal of debate over how fair it is to its Jewish villain Shylock. Shakespeare often wrote villains with understandable grievances, and Shylock is no exception. He is given a famous monologue in which he eloquently complains about the many injustices he has suffered for his faith, which puts his actions in the light of racist persecution. In the end, Shylock is forced to convert to Christianity, which is a pretty lousy fate by modern standards, but in Shakespeare's day this was seen as a merciful HappyEnding, as Shylock lives and his soul is saved. (This is especially important when seen in the context that most Christians at that time saw Jews as "Christ-killers" and thus inherently beyond the Christian MoralEventHorizon.) Other villains in such plays usually receive a gruesome KarmicDeath.
** ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' is about a black man who suspects his white wife is cheating on him and chokes her to death. In the original story on which the play was based, however, the Moorish character doesn't even have a name, and it ends with Desdemona [[AuthorFilibuster lecturing the audience]] on why interracial marriage is evil. In his adaptation, Shakespeare gives the Moor a name and fully fleshes out his character into a sympathetic war hero who is intelligent and sensitive enough to woo Desdemona with poetry. Shakespeare also has the character of The Ensign, here called [[ManipulativeBastard Iago]], serve as the play's villain, a white man who manipulates Othello into a jealous rage ForTheEvulz, and Iago ends the play with getting arrested for his crimes against Othello. The only overtly racist elements of the play are spoken by Iago and Roderigo, the two unsympathetic characters.

* Creator/ChristopherMarlowe's plays tackled such conceptions as ReligionIsWrong, homosexuality and racism and his plays were cited by Creator/OrsonWelles and Creator/BertoltBrecht for having a great deal of UnbuiltTrope. While some have argued that Marlowe's ''Theatre/TheJewOfMalta'' is more racist than ''The Merchant of Venice'' because the Jewish villain is punished, others argue that Marlowe's play is, seen as a whole, far more sympathetic. While not free of the anti-semitism of its premise at the very least has a Jewish VillainProtagonist (where ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'' has a Jewish BigBad and supporting character). Barabas also makes it clear that his actions are inspired by racism and oppression at the hands of Christians and Muslims. One speech is cited by scholars to have inspired Shakespeare's famous monologue:

** Also where Shakespeare's play makes a big deal about how the Christianity being "the quality of mercy", in Marlowe's plays, all the characters (Christians, Muslims, Jews) are shown to be equally corrupt, and the play makes it clear that politics drives religion ("I count religion a childish toy/And hold there is no sin but ignorance") and the overall focus is how oppression forces minority groups to start BecomingTheMask and make them decide ThenLetMeBeEvil, which makes Barabas a ByronicHero who refuses to convert and dies defiant and unrepentant. While the forces that defeat him are not the forces of order so much as another machiavellian and corrupt authority.

* ''Theatre/InAbrahamsBosom'': This play was probably thought of as progressive in its day, with the story being about a black laborer who dreams of bettering himself and founding a school for local children, only to be murdered by the KKK. But Abraham actually makes some of his own problems by his tendency to burst into violent rages when disrepected by white people. And even more disturbingly, the central message of the play is that he ''shouldn't'' be trying to better himself, that a black man seeking an education and hoping to rise up to the level of the white man is tragic folly.

** ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'' has created a great deal of debate over how fair it is to its Jewish villain Shylock. Shakespeare often wrote villains with understandable grievances, and Shylock is no exception. He is given a famous monologue in which he eloquently complains about the many injustices he has suffered for his faith, which puts his actions in the light of racist persecution. In the end, Shylock is forced to convert to Christianity, which is a pretty lousy fate by modern standards, but in Shakespeare's day this was seen as a merciful HappyEnding, as Shylock lives and his soul is saved. Other villains in such plays usually receive a gruesome KarmicDeath.

* {{Creator/Euripides}}' tragedies. Yes, he speaks freely about slaves, since that was the reality of the time, but he does recognize that the slave can have virtues (even if these are largely variations of UndyingLoyalty toward the master), he speaks against enslaving war captives, since it allows a citizen to become a slave, and he shows that enslavement by no means makes one a slave in their soul.

** To try and styme the stereotype of Black people as barbaric savages, all black characters would be dressed in the most dapper outfits possible.

** ''Theatre/KingLear'' features Edmund, a version of the [[BastardBastard villainous bastard]] stock character popular at the time. But while he is a [[ManipulativeBastard resentful and conniving jerk]] who fits every stereotype, he is actually a DeconstructedCharacterArchetype who has a pretty darn good FreudianExcuse for [[TheUnfavorite hating his family]] and nobody but his father ever really brings up his illegitimate heritage. He even inherits his father's land and title (after scheming to have his father and brother killed of course), and goes on to woo ''both'' heirs to the throne. He even tries to [[RedemptionEqualsDeath undo his last acts of villainy.]]
** In ''Theatre/{{Cymbeline}}'', Posthumus carries out the antiquated theatrical role of a jealous, gullible husband who attempts to kill his wife after being duped into thinking she has cheated on him. However, he departs from the several other Shakespearean (and many non-Shakespearean) examples of this role by repenting and forgiving his wife while still mistakenly believing her unfaithful, and even questioning the morality under which husbands feel justified in killing their wives "for wrying but a little".

** Also where Shakespeare's play makes a big deal about how the Christianity being "the quality of mercy", in Marlowe's plays, all the characters (Christians, Muslims, Jew) are shown to be equally corrupt, and the play makes it clear that politics drives religion ("I count religion a childish toy/And hold there is no sin but ignorance") and the overall focus is how oppression forces minority groups to start BecomingTheMask and make them decide ThenLetMeBeEvil, which makes Barabas a ByronicHero who refuses to convert and dies defiant and unrepentant. While the forces that defeat him are not the forces of order so much as another machiavellian and corrupt authority.

* ''Theatre/WestSideStory'' can seem a little stereotypical today with its portrayal of Puerto Ricans, but for the time it was written in, the 1950s, it was revolutionary in that it had sympathetic minority main characters and touched on subjects such as immigration and the devastating effects of racism, poverty and gang violence. You could argue that the reason for the Puerto Rican characters seeming stereotypical is because they ''are'' immigrants, and because they're still living in segregated communities, where the "stereotypical" accents and the old folkways linger a little longer. That's not prejudice, but social realism - which was ''also'' a new idea in the 1950s. Likewise, the white gang? Eastern and Southern Europeans (like the Polish Tony) were not considered "as white" as Western Europeans at the time and weren't treated much better or differently than the Puerto Ricans (which, arguably, was part of the whole point).

* {{Creator/Euripides}}' tragedies. Yes, he speaks freely about slaves, since that was the reality of the time, but he does recognize that the slave can have virtues (even is these are largely variations of UndyingLoyalty toward the master), he speaks against enslaving war captives, since it allows a citizen to become a slave, and he shows that enslavement by no means makes one a slave in their soul.

** ''Theatre/MadamaButterfly'' and ''Lakme'' were both stories about innocent women from the East being taken advantage of by men from the West. Nowadays, some people consider them mildly racist for their portrayal of Asian female stereotypes. But at the time, they were a rather loud reproach to Western people for their grabbing and crushing mentality toward Asian people and their culture. Pinkerton's and Gerald's treatment of Butterfly and Lakme respectively was repellent to any decent person, and probably more than one person left the opera house rethinking their ideas of Western superiority.

** ''Theatre/LaTraviata'' features the courtesan Violetta, who repents and gives up her life of debauchery in order to live with her true love, Alfredo, but is forced to leave him because the scandal of Alfredo living with a former courtesan is wreaking havoc with his family. Modern feminists might object to the fact that she has to "redeem" herself by sacrificing everything, as well as the fact that she conveniently dies in the end, "freeing" Alfredo from scandal once and for all and even urging him on her deathbed to marry "a chaste virgin." Still, the opera portrays her as an unquestionably noble, selfless heroine, and shows up the hypocrisy of the times, criticizing the social more that women who fell could never rise again. At one point, Violetta almost directly rebukes the audience by claiming "Though God forgives, man never will".

* Minstrel shows are remembered today as the origin of {{Blackface}} and all that entails, which it is, but credit where credit's due:

** ''Theatre/KingLear'' features Edmund, a version of the [[BastardBastard villainous bastard]] stock character popular at the time. But while he is a [[ManipulativeBastard resentful and conniving jerk]] who fits every stereotype, he has a pretty darn good FreudianExcuse for [[TheUnfavorite hating his family]] and nobody but his father ever really brings up his illegitimate heritage. He even inherits his father's land and title (after scheming to have his father and brother killed of course), and goes on to woo ''both'' heirs to the throne. He even tries to [[RedemptionEqualsDeath undo his last acts of villainy.]]

** ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' is about a black man who suspects his white wife is cheating on him and chokes her to death. In the original story on which the play was based, however, the Moorish character doesn't even have a name, and it ends with Desdemona [[AuthorFilibuster lecturing the audience]] on why interracial marriage is evil. In his adaptation, Shakespeare gives the Moor a name and fully fleshes out his character into a sympathetic war hero who is intelligent and sensitive enough to woo Desdemona with poetry. Shakespeare also adds the character of [[ManipulativeBastard Iago]] to serve as the play's villain, a white man who manipulates Othello into a jealous rage ForTheEvulz, and Iago ends the play with getting arrested for his crimes against the main character. In fact, the only overtly racist elements of the play are spoken by unsympathetic characters.
** ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew'' has a fairly sexist plot, but the standard "uppity wife" play of the time usually involved gleefully beating her into submission for the audience's amusement. By having Petruchio find a psychological solution (demonstrate how mean-spirited her behavior has been), never laying a finger on her, and letting her change in behavior be of her own choosing, it was downright enlightened. The play also shows the obedient, submissive Bianca, pretty much the epitome of a desired girl, turning out not to be quite the ideal wife her husband expected.

** ''Theatre/LaTraviata'' features the courtesan Violetta, who repents and gives up her life of debauchery in order to live with her true love, Alfredo, but is forced to leave him because the scandal of Alfredo living with a former courtesan is wreaking havoc with his family. Modern feminists might object to the fact that she has to "redeem" herself by sacrificing everything, as well as the fact that she conveniently dies in the end, "freeing" Alfredo from scandal once and for all and even urging him on her deathbed to marry "a chaste virgin." Still, the opera portrays her as an unquestionably noble, selfless heroine, and shows up the hypocrisy of the times, criticizing the social more that women who fell could never rise again. At one point, Violetta almost directly rebukes the audience by claiming "Though God forgives, man never will". Ouch.