Naturalism as a pure form was pioneered by Emile Zola, who imagined theatre as a "slice of life" in which romantic and sentimental elements, as well as the well-made play structure, would give way to a scientific examination of unmediated reality. Russian playwright Maxim Gorky's The Lower Depths (1902) is recognized as the most enduring example of this manner of pushing realism to extremes along with a focus on sordid environments where the many factors influencing behaviors in the human organism could best be controlled.
In American theatre, the attention to mundane details figured prominently in David Belasco's Broadway productions, as in a restaurant scene with actual coffee brewing and pancakes being made. While American audiences have always been most comfortable with literal realism on the stage, naturalism did not mesh as well with American optimism. However, there have been important exceptions. Naturalistic elements inform Eugene O'Neill's early sea-faring plays. Elmer Rice's Pulitzer PRizE-winning Street Scene (1929) depicts life in a New York tenement. Sidney Kingsley's* Dead End* (1935) probably represents the apogee of American naturalism before the infamous broadcasting of the Loud family's daily life in the 1970s and the subsequent flood of reality television* and Internet sites.
The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. James Fisher.