The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel | Style

Realism and Expressionism
While Pavlo Hummel struck audience members as a realistic portrayal of an American soldier's experience in Vietnam, this fact should not obscure the manner in which Rabe's play breaks from the form of theatrical realism. The interior dialogue between Ardell and Pavlo (continuing even after Pavlo's death) gives the play its psychological complexity, in a manner associated with expressionism (conversely, the psychology of characters in realism is revealed externally, through their actions) Rabe writes in his introduction to the play that it was...

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