British Theatre of the Mid-Century

Since the mid-fifties English drama has been in a vigorous condition, contrasting with the stagnation of the immediate postwar years, which saw the decline of the "well-made" play and the traditional drawing-room comedy. Many highly talented writers are now working in the theatre, and some have achieved international reputations.

John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger" first performed in 1956, is generally regarded as a milestone in the postwar English theatre. With its provincial setting and its rebellious young hero this play represents the new fiction of that time, the so-called school of the Angry Young Men. Osborne's second play "The Entertainer" (1957) was more experimental and innovatory, making use of the techniques of the music hall.

In the late fifties the realism of Arnold Wesker's "Trilogy" (1960), comprising "Chicken Soup with Barley," "Roots" and "I Am Talking about Jerusalem," was widely admired. Wesker deals with some interesting themes– Jewish working-class life, the cultural poverty of the masses – but in retrospect his work looks naive and theatrically limited.

A number of plays give a very vivid sense of the self-questioning, the dwelling on the past and uncertainty about the future. No one did this more brilliantly than Alan Bennett in "Forty Years On" (1969). The author uses the technique of the play-within-a-play to dramatize crucial moments in twentieth-century English history. Though Bennett has all the conscious concern with theatrical effect that was the hallmark of the serious playwright in the sixties, he is at the same time a literary dramatist who can be read with pleasure because of the intelligence and wit of his writing.

Of all the many dramatists now writing for the English theatre, there is one who has occupied a dominant position ever since the late fifties, namely Harold Pinter. His work is particularly hard to assess, though it must be noted that he is one of that small company of writers whose name has been turned into an adjective which seems to sum up some common element in our experience. It is those situations when language is used without communicating, when one misunderstanding leads on to another, when no one listens to what anyone else is saying, that is described as "Pinteresque." It is part of Pinter's achievement.Heremains concentrated on problems of communication; on how far a small group of people can convey anything to each other, whether by words or silencesorgesture.

"The Caretaker" (1960), a disturbing but funny play, first established Pinter as a major talent.

Given such a variety of talents it can be said that at the present, English drama is in a healthy condition. But a great many people who do not have convenient access to the London theatres may never or rarely have the opportunity of seeing the work of contemporary dramatists performed. The most widely available form of theatrical experience is provided by television drama. Some very able and much admired dramatists have worked mostly in television, such as Dennis Potter, David Mercer and John Hopkins, and the scripts of their plays have been published. But in a television play the role of language is even more subsidiary than in contemporary stage drama. So one must conclude that if more creative energy goes into the television plays, as opposed to writing for the stage, drama will become still further removed from literature.

II. Translate the following words and word combinations into Russian and use them in sentences of your own:

to be in a vigorous condition, to see the decline of, a traditional drawing-room comedy, to achieve international reputation, a provincial setting, innovatory, to deal with a theme, in retrospect, to dramatize, the intelligence and wit of one's writing, to occupy a dominant position, to assess, to be concentrated on problems of, to be in a healthy condition, a widely available form of, theatrical experience, a much admired dramatist, subsidiary.

III. Answer the following questions:

1. In what condition was English drama of the mid-fifties?

2. Which play is regarded as a milestone in the postwar English theatre? Why?

3. What dramatists are admired in the late fifties?

4. What author uses the technique of the play-with-in-a-play?

5. Why is it hard to assess the work of Harold Pinter?

6. Which play established Pinter as a major talent?

7. Describe the state of English drama at present.

8. What is the most available form of theatrical experience nowadays?

IV. Translate the following extracts into Russian.Beready to speak about the dramatists of the 20th century theatre and their plays.

1. John Osborne's play "Look Back in Anger" (1956) marked the beginning of a new era in British drama. Before the West Theatre mostly played to a formula wittily defined by James Bridie as "two hours amidst the erotic misadventures of the English upper classes." Then the theatre had become liberated. Arnold Wesker, Harold Pinter, Samuel Beckett emerged; fresh writers with new styles. The old type of theatre as an entertainment for genteel minds was definitely out.

2. Harold Pinter's most successful play "The Caretaker" is a realistic play, almost a slice of life, but on another deeper level, it is a poetic image of the human condition itself. Man fighting for a place, for security, but at the same time deprived of it by the weakness of his own selfish nature. Pinter's achievement points the way towards the future; he has shown that it is possible to combine the poetic imagery, the open construction of the Theatre of the Absurd with techniques which do not deviate too much from the mainstream of the tradition of drama. The plays leave the action and the characters unmotivated and unexplained, they reach no neat solution or conclusion, they raise questions rather than answer, they force the audience to find their own interpretations.

3. The main merit of Arnold Wesker in writing the play "Roots" is that he managed to give the character of Beatie in development, in dynamics. The American critic Riballow Harold said: "The final scene in 'Roots' shook and changed the British stage. Beatie's awakening is an awakening for the entire segment of the British population."

A common Norfolk family is in the centre of Arnold Wesker's attention. He treats his heroes, farmers, labourers profoundly realistically. It is known, that when the play was first staged in Norfolk, the spectators were indignant. The matter was the author depicted and critisized the wretchedness, stagnation, coarseness, meanness of people's relations. Through his heroine Beatie he blames the existing social conditions and people who drag out a miserable, dim and animal-like existence and who are too lazy to think because it bores them, needs a mental effort. The roots of the boring sameness and narrow-mindedness of their life are in the existing social conditions of life. But Ronnies and Beaties appear human beings with human dignity who are apt to nip in the bud the roots of the evils of life.

4. In the programme for the Royal National Theatre's new production of Joe Orton's "What the Butler Saw at the Lyttelton," there is a quote from, of all people, Sir Terence Rattigan. "What Orton had to say about England and society," Rattigan declares, "had never been said before. The first thing it showed was a society diminished by telly technology. Everybody expresses themselves as if they were brought up on TV.

I don't know about you, but I was amazed to find that Rattigan had appreciated Orton. The leader of the 1940s and 1950s Haymarket tradition of middle-class drama seems an unlikely admirer of the prickly, swaggering boy, butch and louche and kinky, a foul-mouthed, lower-middle-class Wilds dripping cheeky, poisonous aphorisms. And, yet, when you begin to think about it, Rattigan's praise, apart from being perceptive and generous, is understandable. It is rooted, I think, in a deep-seated perception, which he may not even have been aware of. You get a glimpse of it in "In Praise of Love" (1973), which has just opened at the Apollo in a subtle, quietly moving, deeply perceptive production by Richard Oliver. I won't say that this is Rattigan at his best, but it ought to help to extinguish the idea, if it is still lurking about, that he was a superficial boulevard dramatist who bought his seriousness or his emotions cheap. It is about Sebastian Cruttwell, a top literary reviewer (Peter Bowles), married to Lydia, an Estonian (Liza Harrow, giving a beautifully understated performance in an underwritten role), whom he had met at the end of the war in Berlin where he worked in Intelligence.

This is both first-rate melodrama and searching psychology. Husband and wife share both truth and deception, in more ways than one. Lydia loves Cruttwell, pities his touching immaturity and thinks that he simply could not cope with life without her; Cruttwell, who loves her much more than either of them realises, cannot bear the thought of telling her the truth after all that she has survied. Neither of them can see that the other is stronger than he/she seems. Both are prisoners of Cruttwell's English middle-class emotional inhibitions, which can strangle one's feelings by damming their spontaneous expression."

V. Read the text given below with the help of a dictionary and make a summary of it.

A great deal of contemporary English fiction and drama is dedicated to the subject of man's search for identity, and the stress is not so much on political or social issues as on moral problems. The problem of identity closely linked with one of the most influential philosophical trends on twentieth-century thought, often evoked an existential attitude. It implies a certain scepticism about over knowing the essential nature of any of man's various experiences, particularly when that experience is received only through individual consciousness. At the same time, man must live and make his choice, must come to some terms with his own existence and true meaning of everything around him. Existentialist philosophy places limitations of man's knowledge and power and even on his search for identity on the necessity for serious action or engagement.

Unit XVIII

I. Read the text and do the assignments following it.

Date: 2016-01-03; view: 634