Station 1 · Criterion A(i) · max 8
Investigate the style
Explain what Expressionism is, where it came from and why. Show how it questions power and privilege with evidence from three named plays and argue the SOI through the style rather than simply repeating it.
The task
A(i) takes about two pages of your four page Criterion A PDF. A(ii), your Berkoff critique, takes the other two.
- Statement of inquiry
- Art questions power and privilege.
- Global context
- Fairness and development
- Key concept
- Communication
- Related concept
- Boundaries
- Style
- Expressionism
“Understanding of the art movement(s) or genre(s) and how it questions power and privilege, including comprehensive information (e.g. context, concepts and characteristics) in relation to the statement of inquiry.”MYP Arts PCUP, May 2027, Task 1
The mark bands for A(i)
The official MYP Arts assessment criteria.
How to write it, in four steps
The one thing to get right
Every paragraph has to link back to the SOI: Art questions power and privilege. Expressionism shows the world through the eyes of someone without power or privilege, so whatever play or technique you write about, finish the paragraph by explaining how it puts the audience inside that experience and makes them question who holds the power.
Information about the style that is relevant and related to the SOI. At 5 to 6 the information is relevant throughout. At 7 to 8 it is comprehensive as well as relevant, with the link to the SOI argued in every paragraph. Academic or subject specific sources carry the weight.
- Define the style. Say what Expressionism set out to do. It was a rejection of realism, so say that in a sentence and move on, because the marks are in what Expressionism does. It showed the world as it feels to the person trapped inside it: sets lean and distort, characters lose their names, speech breaks into fragments and emotion is pushed to a scream.
Ask yourself whose point of view an Expressionistic play usually takes, the powerful or the powerless. Answer that and you've already started linking to the SOI.
- The context behind it. You are marked on the style, not on one person's biography, so focus on the purpose and the context that produced it. The context points below tell you where to look. The research is yours to do.
- Production evidence from three named plays. For each play, find one moment and research it properly: what happens, how it was staged, which Expressionistic techniques are used and what the audience was meant to feel. One moment explored in depth is worth more than a play named in passing.
- Bring it back to the SOI. Draw your argument together: how does Expressionism question power and privilege? Don't simply write “this links to the SOI because it questions power.” Argue how, using communication and boundaries as your lenses.
Find the technique in a named play, show exactly where it happens, explain the effect on the audience, then link that effect back to the SOI: how does it question power and privilege?
Context: where to look
Tap to open
These are starting points for your own research, not answers to copy.
Germany, roughly 1910 to the mid 1920s.
Look up Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter. Where did the movement begin and what were artists reacting against?
Industrialisation and factory work.
How were ordinary workers treated and where do you see that in the plays?
The First World War and what came after it.
Who paid the price and who did well out of it? Look into what happened to Ernst Toller.
Earlier influences.
Look at Strindberg's dream plays and Munch's painting The Scream. What did Expressionism take from them?
Kafka's The Metamorphosis, 1915.
Where did Kafka work and how does that connect to Gregor? This is your bridge to Station 2.
The plays: choose three
Tap to open
We've started researching these in class. Choose three. For each one, find a moment where its question comes alive on stage. Using at least one German and one American play shows that Expressionism moved beyond Germany.
Georg Büchner, Woyzeck (written in the 1830s, first staged in 1913)
What happens to a man who is used by everyone above him?
Georg Kaiser, From Morning to Midnight (written 1912, first staged 1917)
Can money buy freedom, or does it simply buy people?
Ernst Toller, Masses and Man (1920)
Can the powerless take power without becoming violent themselves?
Walter Hasenclever, The Son (1914)
What gives a father his authority over the next generation?
Elmer Rice, The Adding Machine (1923)
What happens when a worker is worth no more than a machine?
Sophie Treadwell, Machinal (1928)
How is a young woman trapped by the office, marriage and the law?
Eugene O'Neill, The Hairy Ape (1922)
Who gets to “belong” in society?
Technique bank and sentence frames
Tap to open
A technique only earns marks when you find it in a play. Don't just list techniques. Show exactly where each one happens in one of your three plays, then explain how it questions power and privilege.
Stationendrama (station drama)
A series of short episodes following one figure, modelled on the Stations of the Cross. It shows the protagonist passing through each institution that holds power over them: work, family, church and the law.
Telegrammstil (telegraphic speech)
Short, broken phrases with words missing, like a telegram. Language is stripped down by pressure, so people speak like machines because they are treated like machines.
Schrei (the scream)
An ecstatic or anguished outburst, vocal or physical. It's the moment the powerless person can no longer stay silent.
Archetypes
Characters without names: The Father, The Cashier, The Clerk, Mr Zero. Taking away the name shows how a system sees people and it makes the character stand for everyone in that position.
Chorus and mass
Groups moving and speaking in unison, showing the crowd, the workforce or the ruling class as one force.
Mechanical movement
Repeated, rhythmic, robotic gesture. The human body is controlled by the rhythm of work.
Distorted design
Angled walls, steep staircases, exaggerated scale and stark shadows. The world looks the way it feels to the person with no power. Height and scale can show status directly.
Expressive lighting and sound
Harsh light, deep shadow, a single spotlight, percussion and mechanical noise, used to isolate the individual or overwhelm them.
Subjective viewpoint
The action is shown as the central character experiences it, with dream logic. The audience sees injustice from inside the experience instead of judging it from outside.
Sentence frames for linking back to the SOI
- In [play], [technique] shows [the system] through the eyes of [the person it harms], which means the audience…
- The boundary between [A] and [B] is made visible in [play] through [technique], so the audience…
- [Playwright] uses [technique] when [moment], which questions the power of…
What a top grade 7 paragraph looks like
Band 7 to 8Real coursework
“In addition, Machinal is another example of expressionist theater that demonstrates chaos and disarray through fragmented speech and disorganized timelines to exemplify Helen’s inner turmoil. In her opening monologue, Helen cries ‘don’t touch me’ and ‘no I can’t’ explicitly demonstrating her fear and deterioration. Treadwell aims to illustrate the hallucination and complexity occurring in her mind, as she is unable to grasp control over her surroundings. This nonlinear flow creates an expressionist piece of theater in which the audience can interpret a future whereby avoiding our own personal needs, we lose control of ourselves and embark on a rollercoaster of negative emotions, evidently showing mental distress and lack of order.”
From a 2025 student's top grade 7 investigation. Their SOI was “Art imagines possible futures”. Notice the order: a named play, a technique found in a specific moment, the actual words quoted, then the link back to that year's SOI in the last sentence. Your link will be to power and privilege. Machinal is on this year's list, so if you choose it, find your own moment.
Sources
At 7 to 8, subject specific and academic sources carry the weight. General websites are fine as a starting point but shouldn't be your main evidence. Reference every source in your bibliography, which doesn't count towards your page limit.
- J. L. Styan, Modern Drama in Theory and Practice, Volume 3: Expressionism and Epic Theatre (Cambridge University Press).
- Michael Patterson, The Revolution in German Theatre 1900 to 1933 (Routledge).
- Digital Theatre+ articles and practitioner guides.
- The play texts themselves: quote stage directions where you can.
See the structure in a top grade 7
Last year's exemplar is Brecht, so the content won't help you, but the structure will. Read how it moves from origins to the style's key idea, then gives each play its own section with one moment explored properly.