INTRODUCTION The modern period and its drama have been shaped by world-changing forces, such as the industrial-technological, democratic and intellectual revolution which have upset previous conceptions of time, space, the divine, human psychology and social order. As a result, a theater of challenge and experimentation has emerged. Realism, has an Aristotelian tone, implies a scientific and objective view of life: "the world as it is, in psychological, sociological, political and similar terms" (Lowry 94). . It is a movement with the most pervasive and lasting effect on modern theater, conceived as a laboratory in which the ills of society, family problems, and the nature of relationships could be objectively presented to the judgment of impartial observers. His goal of life-likeness required environments to exactly resemble the prescribed locations. Playwright Henrik Ibsen started the realist movement with plays that focused on contemporary, everyday themes, capturing psychological details. Anton Chekhov in Russia, brought the form to its stylistic apogee with plays whose even minor characters seem to breathe the air we do and in which the plots and themes develop mainly between the lines. Naturalism is an even more extreme attempt to dramatize human reality without the appearance of dramaturgical training. The naturalistic view draws its strength from empiricism in philosophy, which Ian Watt has linked “to the rise of the modern novel and from this to the development of science in Europe from the beginning of the seventeenth century” (Gaskell 14). With the same respect for nature, the human being was conceived as a mere biological phenomenon whose behavior was determined by heredity and the environment. A counter... middle of paper ......the European theater from Isben. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972. Hayley, Barbara. Yark Notes on Juno and the Paycock. New York: Longman, 1981. Hogan, Robert Goode. The Sean O'Casey Experiment. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1960. Krause, David. The man and his work. New York: Macmillan, 1960. Lowry G., Robert. O' Casey Annual No: 2. London: Macmillan, 1983.Malone, AE The Irish Drama 1896-1928. New York: The Sons of Charles Scribner, 1929. Giroux, Christopher. “Sean O'Casey 1880-1964”. Contemporary literary criticism, vol. 88 (1995): 233-288.O'Casey, Sean. The shadow of an armed man. London: Macmillan, 1923.O'Casey, Sean. Juno and the Paycock. London: Macmillan, 1924. O'Casey, Sean. The plow and the star. London: Macmillan, 1926.Styan, J. L. Modern Drama in Theory and Practice. vol. I. Realism and naturalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.