Modern British Playwriting: The 1960's Voices, Documents, New Interpretations

by Nicholson, Steve; McDonnell, Bill; Roberts, Philip; Boon, Richard; Andrews, Jamie; Babbage, Frances

• ISBN13: 9781408129579
• ISBN10: 1408129574
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-08-15
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama

Summary

Essential for students of theatre studies, this series of 6 decadal volumes provides a critical survey and study of the theatre produced in each decade from the 1950s to the present. Each volume features a critical analysis of the work of four key playwrights from that decade together with an extensive commentary on the period. The 60s volume provides a detailed study of the work of four of the major playwrights who came to promience: Edward Bond, John Arden, Harold Pinter and Alan Ayckbourn. As with other volumes in the series, it offers an analysis of some of its most important and representative plays and playwrights; provides the appropriate contextual information, and revisits each decade from the perspective of the twenty first century. Contents: 1. A chronological survey of the decade: the social, cultural and technological changes and the playwrights of the time. 2. The decade as it looked then: theatrical activity, political circumstances and historical context. 3. The four writers from their beginnings up to the start of the decade. 4. An analysis of their plays within the decade combined with a study of primary material such as early play drafts, interviews and critical receptions of the time. 5. A new interview with the writers, reflecting on the period and the plays under discussion. 6. An Afterword: what the writers went on to do next. 7. Select bibliographies Edited by Dr Steve Nicholson and with essays from three further leading scholars, this is an authoritative and stimulating reassessment of British playwriting in the 1960s.

Author Biography

Dr Steve Nicholson is Director of Drama within the English Department at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Table of Contents

General Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xi
Introduction to the 1960s	p. 1
Domestic life	p. 1
Society	p. 3
Science, technology and industry	p. 8
Culture	p. 9
Media	p. 15
Political events	p. 20
Theatre in the 1960s	p. 29
1960-64	p. 31
Performance and politics	p. 31
Cruelty and violence	p. 34
Shakespeare	p. 36
Staging reality	p. 38
The age of satire	p. 41
Theatres of war	p. 43
Beyond words	p. 49
Aunt Edna versus the RSC	p. 54
1965-69	p. 58
Documentary theatre	p. 62
Staging Vietnam	p. 64
Race	p. 67
The American avant-garde	p. 72
The golden age	p. 74
Waiting for paradise	p. 79
Conclusion	p. 82
Introducing the Playwrights	p. 85
Introduction to John Arden	p. 85
Introduction to Edward Bond	p. 91
Introduction to Harold Pinter	p. 97
Introduction to Alan Ayckboum	p. 102
Playwrights and Plays	p. 108
John Arden	p. 108
Serjeant Musgrave's Dance	p. 110
The Workhouse Donkey	p. 119
Armstrong's Last Good Night	p. 126
Britain's Brecht	p. 134
Conclusion	p. 134
Edward Bond	p. 136
Saved	p. 139
Early Morning	p. 147
Lear	p. 154
Conclusion	p. 160
Harold Pinter	p. 161
The Caretaker	p. 163
Early audience response; or, A bloody pain in the neck'	p. 168
The Homecoming	p. 171
Pinter beyond Britain; or looking for Beckett	p. 175
Censorship	p. 178
Landscape and Silence	p. 181
Afterword	p. 187
Alan Ayckbourn	p. 190
1960-64: taking (first) steps	p. 192
1965-70: comedies of sex and class	p. 196
Relatively Speaking	p. 198
How the Other Half Loves and Family Circles	p. 205
Afterword	p. 214
Documents	p. 216
John Arden	p. 216
Edward Bond	p. 224
Harold Pinter	p. 233
Afterword	p. 243
John Arden	p. 243
Edward Bond	p. 249
Harold Pinter	p. 254
Alan Ayckbourn	p. 260
Notes	p. 266
Select Bibliography	p. 288
Index	p. 295
Notes on contributors	p. 304
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