Strategies of Political Theatre: Post-War British Playwrights

Description

This volume provides a theoretical framework for some of the most important play-writing in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century. Examining representative plays by Arnold Wesker, John Arden, Trevor Griffith, Howard Barker, Howard Brenton, Edward Bond, David Hare, John McGrath and Caryl Churchill, the author analyses their respective strategies for persuading audiences of the need for a radical restructuring of society. The book begins with a discussion of the way that theatre has been used to convey a political message. Each chapter is then devoted to an exploration of the engagement of individual playwrights with left-wing political theatre, including a detailed analysis of one of their major plays. Despite political change since the 1980s, political play-writing continues to be a significant element in contemporary play-writing, but in a very changed form.;Rewriting Shakespeare : Edward Bond's Lear (1971) -- Stragegy of play : Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine (1979).;Strategies of political theatre : a theoretical overview -- 'Reflectionist' strategy : 'kitchen sink' realism in Arnold Wesker's Roots (1959) -- 'Interventionist' strategy : poetic politics in John Arden's Serjeant Musgrave's Dance (1959) -- Dialectics of comedgy : Trevor Griffith's Comedians (1975) -- Appropriating middle-class comedy : Howard Barker's Stripwell -- Staging the future : Howard Breton's The Churchill Play (1974) -- Agit-prop revisited : John McGrath's The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black, Black Oil (1973) -- Brecht revisited : David Hare's Fanshen (1975).