1956 – Year of Change

VOLUME 13 NO.10 OCTOBER 2013 journal The Association of Jewish Refugees 1956 – year of change hich were the defining transitional the resolutely lower-class Jimmy Porter, to downtrodden, inarticulate characters in years in the history of post-war and its action takes place in the cramped, down-at-heel, sometimes sordid settings, WEurope? Many would nominate shabby, provincial flat occupied by Porter was epitomised by Wesker’s The Kitchen, 1968, the year of mass student unrest; and his wife. With its direct onslaught set in the basement kitchen of a restaurant. others would opt for 1973, the year of on the class-obsessed conformity and Like the strange and menacing early the oil price rise that put an end to the smug complacency of post-war Britain, plays of Harold Pinter, The Birthday period of high growth rates, Europe’s its distrust of established standards and Party (1958) and The Caretaker (1960), post-war ‘economic miracle’. But for values, and its general lack of respect these dramas broke decisively with the Britain, where student unrest was on well-made play’s focus on upper- and a modest scale and where the dismal middle-class characters and settings. I performance of the economy made the can still recall the sense of excitement I German Wirtschaftswunder a distant felt when, as a 14-year-old boy, I was taken prospect, neither of these years appears to to see Lindsay Anderson’s production of represent a historical turning-point. Willis Hall’s The Long and the Short and Instead, 1956 stands out as a year of the Tall at the Royal Court in 1959. A play change in Britain, when the established about the war – dramatising the fate of a order of post-war society was turned on patrol of British soldiers in Malaya in 1942 its head. In politics, 1956 was the year during the Japanese advance – that had no of Suez, Prime Minister Anthony Eden’s officers! No clipped upper-class accents, ill-fated military intervention in Egypt, no moustaches masking understated which revealed in humiliating fashion emotions, no officer-class actors behaving the limitations of Britain’s fading claim as if they had swagger sticks up their to be a ‘world power’. The failure of behinds! The production of The Caretaker political judgment evident in this military that I saw in 1960, with Donald Pleasance adventure, and the evident dishonesty as the tramp Davies opposite Alan Bates of the government’s attempts to justify John Osborne, 1929-94 and Peter Woodthorpe as the brothers it as a means to restore peace to the Mick and Aston, also had the novelty value Suez Canal area, seriously undermined for ‘official’ society, Look Back in Anger of portraying, as if through a distorting the British public’s hitherto largely brought a new, sharply left-wing tone onto mirror, the life of society’s neglected unquestioning belief in the ultimate the British stage. underclass. competence and trustworthiness of its In Osborne’s second play, The Nineteen fifty-six marked a turning- rulers. The discrediting of the ruling class Entertainer (1957), the role of the washed- point in British social attitudes and social was taken a stage further with the Profumo up vaudeville comic Archie Rice was taken culture. Left-wing politics acquired a affair in 1963, when senior public figures by Laurence Olivier. Having embodied new chic as it became de rigueur for its were revealed frolicking with nubile young British establishment patriotism in his devotees to be seen on the annual CND women and, in Profumo’s case, lying to role as the King in the wartime film of march to Aldermaston. The new social parliament about it. Henry V, Britain’s leading actor was now realism erupted into British cinema with Nineteen fifty-six was also a year of playing a figure whose slide into mediocrity Karel Reisz’s Saturday Night and Sunday dramatic change in the world of the British and cynicism mirrored the increasingly Morning (1960), starring Albert Finney, theatre. The first performance of John threadbare condition of establishment an adaptation of the novel by Alan Sillitoe Osborne’s Look Back in Anger at the Royal values and the scepticism that they were that brought the everyday life of the Court Theatre on 8 May 1956, directed by increasingly encountering in post-war British industrial working class onto the Tony Richardson and starring Kenneth society. The floodgates were now open, as screen. It was followed by The Loneliness Haigh, was a landmark in British culture, the plays of Arnold Wesker, Chicken Soup of the Long Distance Runner (1962), an ushering in the era of the ‘angry young with Barley, Roots (both 1958) and Chips adaptation of a short story by Sillitoe, men’. The play can be seen as a calculated with Everything (1962), with their vision of directed by Tony Richardson and starring rejection of the conventions and values a class-ridden society from the viewpoint Tom Courtenay as a rebellious borstal of the well-made play, the genre that had of its poorer, under-privileged members, boy whose ultimate act of defiance of the dominated British theatre in the interwar and John Arden’s Serjeant Musgrave’s system he hates is to disown his talent for years and continued to do so in the decade Dance (1959), a bitter indictment of the running by handing victory in a race to an after 1945, despite the huge changes in violence perpetrated by Britain in its upper-class adversary. Milder in tone, for British society that had occurred over colonies, conquered the stage. This new all its frankness in depicting the joys and that period. The play’s main character style of radically naturalistic drama, dubbed pitfalls of working-class love life in northern – one can hardly call him its ‘hero’ – is ‘kitchen sink drama’, giving prominence continued overleaf AJR JOURNAL OCTOBER 2013 1956 – year of change continued AJR CENTRE TO CLOSE t is with great sadness that we as smooth as possible. We will arrange for England, was John Schlesinger’s film A announce the closure, at the end of a member of staff to initially accompany Kind of Loving (1962), adapted from the Ithis year, of the AJR Centre at Belsize members and help in making the move. novel by Stan Barstow and starring Alan Square Synagogue. Despite the best As with Belsize Square, and before Bates and June Ritchie. The bleak setting efforts of our dedicated staff and an that Cleve Road, we will continue to of the industrial North was shared by This expanded and interesting programme, transport members to and from the Sporting Life (1963), adapted from a novel we have not been able to attract a Community Centre for two days a week, by David Storey about the life of a Rugby greater attendance from among our and for members who have been regular League footballer, directed by Lindsay membership. attenders at the AJR Centre we will Anderson and starring Richard Harris. Sadly, the number of members contribute to any additional costs that attending the Centre has dwindled may be incurred in participating in the The principal victims of the abrupt shift since we relocated to the Synagogue new setting. The decision to close the in fashion that overtook the British theatre from Cleve Road in January 2012 to the Centre in no way affects any of the other in the mid-1950s were Noel Coward and point that it has become very difficult social or welfare services we provide or Terence Rattigan, established and highly to justify maintaining the service. It is a members’ entitlement to any financial successful writers of well-made plays. great shame that more of our members assistance. Rattigan’s reputation has never recovered have been unable to benefit from the Regrettably, closing the AJR Centre from his fall in critical esteem 60 years camaraderie and unique setting the means that there will most likely be ago, though in figures like the desiccated Centre has offered since its opening in some staff redundancies and we will be classics teacher Crocker-Harris in The 1987. losing the services of loyal and popular Browning Version (1948) and in plays like Our intention is to integrate AJR employees. I would like to put on record The Deep Blue Sea (1946) and Separate members into the Community Centre our enormous thanks to everyone who Tables (1954) he was able to create unlikely (formerly the Sobell Centre), which meets has worked at our Centre and been depths of emotional resonance. But solidly in the new Jewish Care building, Amelie involved in its operation during the past conventional plays like The Winslow Boy House, in Golders Green. The Community quarter of a century. (1946), not to mention the pre-war comedy Centre organises many of the activities We also recall the foresight and French without Tears, now look rather like – including arts and crafts, a discussion endeavour of our late President and period pieces. group, painting, exercise classes and a former Treasurer, Ludwig Spiro, in paving Noel Coward has fared better, with music group – that we offer at Belsize the way for the creation of the AJR Centre Private Lives (1930) currently enjoying Square and serves hot cooked lunches. as well as the generosity of Dr Paul Balint a successful revival at London’s Gielgud Although we will be losing the identity with regard to his donation to finance Theatre and plays like Hay Fever (1925), of the AJR Centre, we very much hope the project. that our members will feel at home at All involved played a decisive role in Blithe Spirit (1941) and Present Laughter the Community Centre.

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