Peter Shaffer: Theatre and Drama

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PETER SHAFFER: THEATRE AND DRAMA

Peter Shaffer Theatre and Dratna

M. K. MacMurraugh-Kavanagh First published in Great Britain 1998 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-349-40002-7 ISBN 978-0-230-37295-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230372955

First published in the United States of America 1998 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-21183-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data MacMurraugh-Kavanagh, M. K. (Madeleine K.), 1965- Peter Shaffer: theatre and drama / M.K. MacMurraugh-Kavanagh. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-21183-7 I. Shaffer, Peter, 1926- -Criticism and interpretation. \. Title. PR6037.H23Z76 1997 822'.9 I 4--

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This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. 10987654 321 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 For my Mother

Contents

List of Plays and Play Premieres viii

Preface x

Acknowledgements xiii

1 Introduction 1

2 'Of the Theatre Theatrical' 14

3 Words and their Limits 35

4 Alienation, Identity, Dysfunction 57

5 Murdering Divinities 79

6 The Clash between Two Kinds of Right 101

7 The Problem with Women ... 124

8 Myth and Morality: The Gift of the Gorgon 145

Conclusion 163

Notes 168

Bibliography 193

Index 201 List of Plays and Play Premieres

The Salt Land (television drama), 8 November 1955 (lTV). The Prodigal Father (radio drama), 14 September 1957 (BBC Radio). Balance of Terror (television drama), 21 November 1957 (BBC); 27 January 1958 (CBS). Five Finger Exercise, 16 July 1958, Comedy Theatre, London. 2 December 1959, Music Box Theater, New York. The Private Ear (with The Public Eye), 10 May 1962, Globe Theatre, London. 9 October 1963, Morosco Theater, NY. The Public Eye (with The Private Ear), 10 May 1962, Globe Theatre, London. 9 October 1963, Morosco Theater, NY. The Merry Rooster's Pan to, 17 December 1963, Wyndham's Theatre, London. The Royal Hunt of the Sun, 7 July 1964, National Theatre at Chichester. 26 October 1965, ANTA Theater, NY. Black Comedy, 27 July 1965, National Theatre at Chichester. 12 February 1967, Ethel Barrymore Theater, NY (with White Lies). White Lies (with Black Comedy), 12 February 1967, Ethel Barrymore Theater, NY. 21 February 1968, Lyric Theatre, London (White Lies revised as White Liars). The Battle of Shrivings (revised as Shrivings, 1974), 5 February 1970, Lyric Theatre, London. Equus, 26 July 1973, National Theatre, at the Old Vic Theatre, London. 24 October 1974, Plymouth Theater, NY. Amadeus, 2 November 1979, National Theatre, London. 17 December 1980, Broadhurst Theater, NY. Yonadab, 4 December 1985, National Theatre, London

viii List of Plays and Play Premieres ix Lettice and Lovage, 27 October 1987, Globe Theatre, London. 25 March 1990, Ethel Barrymore Theater, NY (revised as Lettice & Lovage). Whom Do I Have the Honour of Addressing? (radio drama), May 1989 (BBC). 19 November 1996, Chichester. The Gift of the Gorgon, 5 December 1992, The Pit Theatre, Barbican Centre, London. Preface

I was first introduced to the plays of Peter Shaffer by a truly in• spired teacher when I was in my mid-teens; I have never forgotten the impact these dramas had on me and the areas of thought and feeling they opened. With the necessary exams passed and with further studies embarked upon, I continued to return over and over again to the texts, each time finding some new reverberation or meaning in the words. It is the intention of this book to communi• cate some idea of the sheer pleasure to be gained from a reading of these plays, and to suggest ways in which this pleasure can be deepened by placing them in the contexts of academic debate and of the theatrical imagination. The reader's knowledge of these plays at the level of plot (gleaned from a reading of the work or from seeing performances of it) has been assumed in this book. Given the tight word-limit in operation here, it makes little sense to provide outlines of stories when words can be spent on more valuable analysis. To under• stand the ideas presented here, then, readers should read or view the plays first. Viewing the film adaptations of them will be of little help as the film scripts often bear scant resemblance to the stage versions of these plays. This book is divided into nine chapters, each taking a specific theme in Shaffer's work, discussing its relevance, and applying the ideas outlined in the preliminary section to two or three plays from his canon. The plays are not discussed in chronological order but are introduced into chapters when their impulses or themes have a direct relevance to the analysis. Dealing with the plays chronolo• gically would hamper discussion of the major themes at stake and would preclude the drawing of interesting parallels between two plays (as in Chapter 4) simply because they happened not to follow one from the other in date order. The book is therefore organized around broad areas of debate rather than around a sequential analysis of individual plays. Beginning with general topics of interest, the book first discusses Shaffer's life and writing career and places him in the context of post-1945 British theatre. Critical assessments of him are also sum• marized in this introductory chapter. Chapter 2 continues with the

x Preface xi general and investigates Shaffer's use of the theatrical environment; this section incorporates some basic and necessary discussion of Shaffer's apparent debt to two of the most significant theatrical theorists and practitioners of the twentieth century - Antonin Artaud and Bertolt Brecht. The book then moves towards more specific themes and topics in Shaffer's drama beginning with the much discussed theatrical pre• occupation, communication. Here, discussion of Shaffer's earlier plays (Five Finger Exercise, The Private Ear, The Public Eye and Black Comedy) is applied to the ideas raised. Chapter 4 then looks at the related emphases on dysfunction, identity and alienation in these plays, drawing a comparison between two of Shaffer's protago• nists, Mark Askelon of Shrivings and the eponymous Yonadab. Chapters 5 and 6 (the centre of the book) both deal with The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Equus and Amadeus. These are, of course, Shaffer's most famous plays and are the most frequently performed and studied - one good reason for devoting two chapters to the analysis of them. In the first, Shaffer's use of religion and myth and the idea of 'worship' are themes that predominate; in Chapter 6, these themes are again featured in a discussion which views the plays as clear demonstrations of Shaffer's theatre of conflict and disjunction. The crucial debates centring on the Apollonian-Dionysian impulses in Shaffer's drama are addressed here. Chapter 7 introduces a theme that has not been sufficiently ex• plored in criticism of Shaffer's plays: that is, the role of the female protagonist in his drama. Here, discussion begins with a brief con• sideration of this playwright's female protagonists through the years, and then focuses on two plays in which female presence is at last fully registered and realized: Lettice and Lovage and Whom Do I Have the Honour of Addressing? In Chapter 8, Shaffer's connection between myth and morality is explored in an extended analysis of Shaffer's most recent full• length play, The Gift of the Gorgon. An entire chapter has been devoted to this drama because there is, at present, little published discussion of it for students or playgoers to refer to. Finally, the conclusion presents a brief discussion of the cinematic adaptation of Shaffer's plays and offers a framework in which Peter Shaffer's work for the theatre can be understood and, above all, enjoyed. Readers will, it is hoped, emerge from this book with a clear understanding of the way in which Shaffer's theatre 'works' both theatrically and dramatically. It is also hoped that students and Preface playgoers alike will respond to an insight that stands central to Shaffer's work; that is that 'meaning' is not purely intellectual, but resides, above all, in emotional and psychological territories of experience. I would like, finally, to express my warm thanks to Peter Shaffer for co-operating with such generosity in the writing of this book. During a particularly hectic period of his life, his courtesy never flagged as, even in a less busy man, it surely had a right to do. Both he and his plays have made the writing of this book an enlighten• ing and extremely pleasurable experience.

MADELEINE MACMURRAUGH-KAVANAGH

xii Acknowledgements

My thanks must first of all go to Peter Shaffer whose help and en• couragement in the writing of this book has been invaluable. I am extremely grateful to him for agreeing to meet me and to spare the time for a series of entertaining and illuminating interviews held in London and Chichester in the autumn of 1996. Discussing his work with him has been a joy. My thanks, in addition, to Charmian Hearne at Macmillan who has been so supportive of me as a writer and whose professional eye has steered me calmly through the publishing process. In addition, I would like to thank Ron Knowles at Reading University for encouraging me to write this book and for his assist• ance in making the initial approach to Macmillan. His advice and help has been much appreciated over the years that I have known him. I would also like to thank Brian Edgar, an extraordinary and gifted teacher, who first introduced me to these plays and who taught me to think in mature terms about literature and history. Finally, my heartfelt thanks to my family and friends. To my mother in particular, my special thanks for her generosity, love and support over the years: she is a remarkable woman without whom I would have achieved nothing. And to Mark, of course, for his kindness and patience.

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