New Drama (also described as New Russian Drama) is a Russian theater movement that emphasizes "natural speech" and addresses social issues while avoiding being overtly political.
[4][3]: 34–39 New Drama plays often feature violence and obscenities, the latter of which violates a former taboo in Russian theater.
[5]: 395 Critic John Freedman notes that both violence and obscenity can be unsettling to viewers seeking an uplifting theatrical experience, but that playwrights and directors of the New Drama movement favor the portrayal of the "essence of life as we live it" rather than a romanticized ideal.
[2] In the New Drama style, the poetry of theatrical writing gives way to "reality, simplicity, directness, and unblinking honesty.
[9] The movement is also represented by English-language anthologies such as Real and phantom pains : an anthology of new Russian drama[6] and New Russian drama : an anthology,[10] and studied in Performing Violence: Literary and Theatrical Experiments of New Russian Drama.