Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

In the Theatre — the Limits of Naturalism

  • Chapter
Representations of Working-Class Life 1957–1964

  • 9 Accesses

Abstract

With the return of a Labour government in 1945 those left-wing theatre groups who had managed to survive since the 1930s seemed to be entering upon a situation — a Socialist Britain — especially favourable to the development of a genuine people’s theatre. The enormity of this misjudgement is clear only in retrospect. The decade following 1945 proved the most inhospitable and unproductive in the twentieth century (to date) for both socialist and working-class cultural activity. This was particularly marked in the area of theatre as demonstrated by the experiences of three of the most durable left-wing theatre enterprises of the period: London Unity, Glasgow Unity and Theatre Workshop.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes and References

  1. T. Willis, letter to the New Statesman, 15 December 1945, p. 407.

    Google Scholar 

  2. T. Willis, ‘Look back in wonder’, Encore, No. 13 (March 1958) p. 13.

    Google Scholar 

  3. R. Williams, Politics and Letters (London: New Left Books, 1979) p. 74.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Willis, ‘Look back in wonder’, p. 13.

    Google Scholar 

  5. New Statesman, 21 August 1948, p. 154.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Theatre World, February 1949, p. 39.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Theatre World, February 1953, p. 35.

    Google Scholar 

  8. B. Kops, ‘Committed to the world’, Encore, No. 13 (March 1958) p. 12.

    Google Scholar 

  9. W. Young, letter in Encore, No. 17 (November 1958) p. 43.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Cited in J. Hill, ‘Towards a Scottish people’s theatre’, Theatre Quarterly, 7, No. 27 (Autumn 1977) p. 63.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Ibid., p. 68.

    Google Scholar 

  12. New Statesman, 6 March 1948, p. 193.

    Google Scholar 

  13. H. Goorney, The Theatre Workshop Story (London: Eyre Methuen, 1981) p. 42.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Ibid., p. 42.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Ibid., p. 99.

    Google Scholar 

  16. T. Milne, ‘Art in Angel Lane’, Encore, No. 16 (September 1958) p. 13.

    Google Scholar 

  17. T. Willis, ‘Discussion on vital theatre’, Encore, No. 19 (March 1959) p. 21.

    Google Scholar 

  18. D. Watt, ‘Class report’, Encore, No. 10 (September 1957) pp. 60–2.

    Google Scholar 

  19. This is discussed further in Chapter 5 in relation to the subsequent film version.

    Google Scholar 

  20. L. Anderson, review of A Taste of Honey, in Encore, No. 15 (July 1958) p. 42.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Spectator, 6 June 1958, p. 729.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Theatre World, July 1958, p. 37.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Spectator, 20 February 1959, p. 257.

    Google Scholar 

  24. C. MacInnes, ‘A taste of reality’, Encounter, April 1959, p. 70.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Theatre World, March 1959, p. 8.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Theatre World, April 1959.

    Google Scholar 

  27. New Statesman, 21 February 1959, p. 254.

    Google Scholar 

  28. New Statesman, 28 February 1959, p. 283.

    Google Scholar 

  29. J. Mander, The Writer and Commitment (London: Secker and Warburg, 1961) p. 189

    Google Scholar 

  30. Cited in the Spectator, 10 February 1961, p. 185.

    Google Scholar 

  31. R. Brustein, ‘The English stage’, New Statesman, 6 August 1965, p. 193.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Scene description and introductory note to Live Like Pigs, J. Arden, Three Plays (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1964) pp. 100, 101.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Ibid., p. 102.

    Google Scholar 

  34. K. Waterhouse and W. Hall, Billy Liar (London: Samuel French, 1960) Production Note, pp. 6, 7.

    Google Scholar 

  35. P. Hobsbaum, ‘How provincial can you get?’, Encore, No. 36 (March 1962) p. 27.

    Google Scholar 

  36. T. Willis, ‘Discussion on vital theatre’, p. 21.

    Google Scholar 

  37. R. Williams, ‘Drama and the left’, Encore, No. 19 (March 1959) p. 11 and ‘New English drama’, The Twentieth Century, CLXX, No. 1011 — reprinted in J. R. Brown (ed.), Modern British Dramatists (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1968).

    Google Scholar 

  38. S. Hall, ‘Beyond naturalism pure’, Encore, No. 34 (September 1961) p. 13.

    Google Scholar 

  39. J. Whiting, ‘At ease in a bright red tie’, Encore, No. 21 (July 1959) p. 14.

    Google Scholar 

  40. C. Marowitz, ‘A cynic’s glossary’, Encore, No. 31 (March 1961) p. 32.

    Google Scholar 

  41. P. Brook, ‘Search for a hunger’, Encore, No. 32 (May 1961) pp. 12, 14.

    Google Scholar 

  42. L. Anderson, ‘Vital theatre?’ Encore, No. 11 (November 1957) p. 44.

    Google Scholar 

  43. A. Hunt, ‘Around us … things are there’, Encore, No. 34 (September 1961) p. 25.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Williams, Politics and Letters, pp. 203, 205, 223.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Ibid., p. 223.

    Google Scholar 

  46. C. Marowitz and S. Trussler (eds), Theatre at Work (London: Methuen, 1967) p. 67.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Goorney, The Theatre Workshop Story, p. 88.

    Google Scholar 

  48. Ibid., p. 99.

    Google Scholar 

  49. Willis, ‘Discussion on vital theatre’, p. 22.

    Google Scholar 

  50. Marowitz and Trussler (eds), Theatre at Work, p. 81.

    Google Scholar 

  51. A Wesker, The Wesker Trilogy (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979) p. 59.

    Google Scholar 

  52. Ibid., p. 68.

    Google Scholar 

  53. Ibid.

    Google Scholar 

  54. Ibid., p. 75.

    Google Scholar 

  55. Theatre World, August 1958, p. 9.

    Google Scholar 

  56. Wesker, The Wesker Trilogy, p. 92.

    Google Scholar 

  57. Ibid., p. 147.

    Google Scholar 

  58. Mander, The Writer and Commitment, pp. 196–7.

    Google Scholar 

  59. New Statesman, 11 July 1959, p. 48.

    Google Scholar 

  60. Evening Standard, 19 January 1960, cited in Mander, The Writer and Commitment, p. 196.

    Google Scholar 

  61. J. R. Taylor, Anger and After, second edn (London: Methuen, 1969) pp. 154–5.

    Google Scholar 

  62. M. Kaye, ‘The new drama’, New Left Review, No. 5 (September-October 1960) p. 64.

    Google Scholar 

  63. Wesker, The Wesker Trilogy, p. 164.

    Google Scholar 

  64. Taylor, Anger and After, p. 167.

    Google Scholar 

  65. A. Wesker, Fears of Fragmentation (London: Cape, 1970) p. 16.

    Google Scholar 

  66. Ibid., p. 11.

    Google Scholar 

  67. Marowitz and Trussler (eds), Theatre at Work, p. 86.

    Google Scholar 

  68. G. Reeves, ‘The biggest Aunt Sally of them all’, Encore, No. 41 (January 1963) p. 8.

    Google Scholar 

  69. Ibid., p. 14.

    Google Scholar 

  70. Ibid., p. 15.

    Google Scholar 

  71. Marowitz and Trussler (eds), Theatre at Work, p. 87.

    Google Scholar 

  72. Wesker, Fears of Fragmentation, p. 61.

    Google Scholar 

  73. Reeves, ‘The biggest Aunt Sally of them all’, p. 16.

    Google Scholar 

  74. J. Garforth, ‘Arnold Wesker’s mission’, Encore, No. 43 (May–June 1963) pp. 41ff.

    Google Scholar 

  75. Goorney, The Theatre Workshop Story, p. 114.

    Google Scholar 

  76. Ibid., p. 116.

    Google Scholar 

  77. Encore, No. 43 (May–June 1963) p. 50.

    Google Scholar 

  78. J. McGrath, A Good Night Out (London: Eyre Methuen, 1981).

    Google Scholar 

  79. Goorney, The Theatre Workshop Story, p. 127.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Stuart Laing
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 1986 Stuart Laing

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Laing, S. (1986). In the Theatre — the Limits of Naturalism. In: Representations of Working-Class Life 1957–1964. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18459-0_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation