The Nature of Conflict in Modern Dramaturgy About Teenagers

The article considers the nature of conflict in plays about teenagers written between 2013 and 2020 and awarded at various contemporary drama competitions. Article contains a brief historical excursion that provides the history of the development of domestic teenage drama, the audience of which began with children and teenagers and then expanded to an adult audience. The author comes to the conclusion that in the newest play about teenagers the influence of the “new new drama” of the turn of the 20th – 21st centuries is felt in the following aspects: adult themes come into play about children; conflicts in the plays reflect the most pressing social, cultural and spiritual problems of society; the basis of a dramatic conflict is determined by an identity crisis; the source of many conflict situations is the actions of adults that violate the harmonious world order. The teenage hero, as a rule, comes into a social conflict (a collision with social Others) with peers, adults, and anonymous Internet users. In monodramatic plays we see the hero’s conflict with himself as the Other, while the hero’s speech becomes the space for the realization of the dramatic conflict. The plays reflecting the communication of teenagers on the Internet show the conflict of the heroes with the present. The plays reflecting school conflicts show that the school community is losing the unifying force that helps resolve conflicts, and the teacher ceases to be a leader of the team. The teenage hero has to cope with crises completely alone, since there is a gap between the world of children and the world of adults. There is a tendency to create plays with the plot of formation, when the hero undergoes trials and gains experience.