BRITISH AND IRISH DRAMA SINCE 1960
Also by James Acheson BECKETT'S LATER FICTION AND DRAMA: TEXTS FOR COMPANY (editor with Kateryna Arthur) THE BRITISH AND IRISH NOVEL SINCE 1960 (editor)
British and Irish Drama since 1960 Edited by James Acheson Senior Lecturer in English University of Canterbury Christchurch, New Zealand lsotb YEAR M St. Martin's Press
Editorial matter, selection and Chapter 1 James Acheson 1993 Chapters 2-15 The Macmillan Press Ltd 1993 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1993 978-0-333-53259-1 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and dvil claims for damages. First published in Great Britain 1993 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Ubrary. ISBN 978-1-349-22764-8 ISBN 978-1-349-22762-4 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-22762-4 First published in the United States of America 1993 by Scholarly and Reference Division, ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-08046-4 Ubrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data British and Irish drama since 1960 I edited by James Acheson. P em. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-312-08046-4 1. English drama-20th century-history and critidsm. 2. English drama-irish authors-history and critidsm. 3. Ireland in literature. I. Acheson, James, 1947- PR737.B675 1993 822'.91409--<lc20 92-46047 CIP
Contents Preface Notes on the Contributors vii viii 1 'The Absolute Absence of the Absolute': the Theory and Practice of Samuel Beckett's Drama 1 ]ames Acheson 2 Pinter and the Pinteresque 18 fohn Fletcher 3 Revitalised Ritual and Theatrical Flair: the Plays of Peter Shaffer 32 William Hutchings 4 Mirrors of Utopia: Caryl Churchill and Joint Stock 47 Frances Gray 5 Casting the Audience: Theatricality in the Stage Plays of Peter Nichols 60 Andrew Parkin 6 Translations of History: Story-telling in Brian Friel's Theatre 73 Katharine Worth 7 Tom Murphy: Acts of Faith in a Godless World 88 Richard Allen Cave 8 Edward Bond: a Political Education 103 Anthony Jenkins 9 Stoppard's Theatre of Unknowing 117 Mary A. Doll 10 Making History: the Plays of Howard Brenton 130 Hersh Zeifman v
vi Contents 11 Forgiving History and Making New Worlds: Timberlake Wertenbaker's Recent Drama 146 Ann Wilson 12 Freedom and Form in David Hare's Drama 162 James Gindin 13 Honouring the Audience: the Theatre of Howard Barker 176 Robert Wilcher 14 The Plays of Pam Gems: Personal/ Political/ Personal 190 Katherine H. Burkman 15 Postmodem Classics: the Verse Drama of Tony Harrison 202 Romana Huk Index 227
Preface The fifteen essays in this collection, published here for the first time, survey the work of some of the most major British and Irish dramatists of the past three decades. Its fifteen essayists dwell almost exclusively on British and Irish theatre: limitations of space have dictated that cinema screenplay and radio and television drama be treated only tangentially. Included in the collection are four dramatists - Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Peter Shaffer and Peter Nichols - who began writing plays before 1960, and whose work since then has continued to develop in interesting new ways. Most of the dramatists considered here are those who have made their appearance since 1960, and who illustrate some of the distinctive characteristics of British and Irish drama of the past thirty-odd years. I am very grateful to the University of Canterbury for making a research grant available to enable me to complete this collection. }AMES AcHESON vii
Notes on the Contributors James Acheson is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. He is coeditor of Beckett's Later Fiction and Drama: Texts for Company, editor of The British and Irish Novel Since 1960, and author of two forthcoming books, one on Beckett, the other on John Fowles. A member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Beckett Studies, Dr Acheson has published on Beckett and other modem writers in various essay collections and journals. Katherine H. Burkman is Professor of English at Ohio State University. She is co-author of Drama Through Performance, author of The Dramatic World of Harold Pinter: its Basis in Ritual, Literature Through Performance: 'Shakespeare's Mirror' and 'A Canterbury Caper' and The Arrival of Godot: Ritual Patterns in Modern Drama, and editor of Myth and Ritual in the Plays of Samuel Beckett. Richard Allen Cave is Professor of Drama and Theatre Arts at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London. He has published extensively in the fields of Renaissance and Modem Drama, Stage Design, Dance, and Anglo-Irish Theatre of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Professor Cave is the General Editor of the Theatre in Focus series, promoted by the Consortium for Drama and Media in Higher Education, of which he is currently Chairman. Mary A. Doll is Associate Professor of English at Our Lady of Holy Cross College (New Orleans), where she teaches modem literature. She is author of Beckett and Myth and In the Shadow of the Giant: Thomas Wolfe, and has published essays on modem drama and fiction in numerous edited collections and journals. John Fletcher is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of East Anglia. He is the author or coauthor of many essays on modem drama, and of over a dozen books on contemporary writing, including The Novels of Samuel Beckett, Samuel Beckett's Art, New Directions in Literature, Beckett: a Study of his Plays, A Student's Guide to the Plays of Samuel Beckett, Claude Simon and Fiction Now and Alain Robbe-Grillet. James Gindin is Professor of English at the University of Michigan. viii
Notes on the Contributors ix He is author of Postwar British Fiction: New Accents and Attitudes, Harvest of a Quiet Eye: the Novel of Compassion, The English Climate: an Excursion into a Biography of john Galsworthy, john Galsworthy 's Life and Art: an Alien's Fortress, William Golding, and of numerous essays and reviews. Frances Gray is Lecturer in English and Drama at the University of Sheffield. She is author of john Arden and Noel Coward, and is working on a book provisionally entitled Women and Laughter. She has written several radio plays and contributes a regular column on radio to Plays International. Romana Huk is Assistant Professor of English at the University of New Hampshire. She is author of a forthcoming book on Stevie Smith, and has published essays on contemporary British and American poets in various collections and journals. Dr Huk is currently writing a book on Tony Harrison, Geoffrey Hill, Jon Silkin, Ken Smith, Jeffrey Wainwright, and the significance of the social context they shared at the University of Leeds. William Hutchings is Associate Professor of English at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is author of both The Plays of David Storey: a Thematic Study and a forthcoming book on Alan Sillitoe. In addition, Dr Hutchings has published essays on modem literature in many leading journals. Anthony Jenkins is Professor of English and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Victoria. He is author of The Theatre of Tom Stoppard and The Making of Victorian Drama, and editor of The Isle of Ladies and Critical Essays on Tom Stoppard. As well as being an academic, Professor Jenkins is a professional actor and director, and hosts a local television programme on the arts. Andrew Parkin is Professor of English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is author of The Dramatic Imagination of W.B. Yeats and a volume of poetry entitled Dancers in a Web, and is editor of Dian Boucicault: Selected Plays and of Yeats's The Herne's Egg. A former Editor of The Canadian journal of Irish Studies, Professor Parkin has published essays on modem drama in numerous journals. He has known Peter Nichols for some years, and has followed his development as a dramatist with considerable interest. Robert Wilcher is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Birmingham, where he teaches modem drama and seventeenth century literature. Dr Wilcher is author of Understanding Arnold
X Notes on the Contributors Wesker and Andrew Marvell, and editor of Andrew Marvell: Selected Poetry and Prose. He has contributed essays on modem drama to many edited collections and journals. Ann Wilson is Associate Professor of Drama at the University of Guelph. She has published essays on contemporary British, Canadian and American drama in such journals as Canadian Theatre Review, Modern Drama and Theatre Research International, and is Associate Editor of Essays in Theatre. Katharine Worth is Emeritus Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies in the University of London and currently Visiting Professor at King's College, London. She is author of Revolutions in Modern English Drama, The Irish Drama of Europe from Yeats to Beckett and Oscar Wilde, and is editor of Beckett the Shape Changer: a Symposium and of Yeats's Where There Is Nothing. Professor Worth has been active in producing plays for radio, television and the theatre. Hersh Zeifman is Associate Professor of English at York University (Canada), where he teaches dramatic literature. He is author of many essays on modem drama, editor of David Hare: a Casebook, and coeditor of Contemporary British Drama, 1970-90. Dr Zeifman is President of the Samuel Beckett Society, coeditor of Modern Drama, and a member of the Editorial Board of The Pinter Review.