DOCSLIB.ORG

From the Political to the Personal:Interrogation, Imprisonment, and Sanction in the Prison Drama of Seamus Byrne and Brendan Behan Charles F

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
From the Political to the Personal:Interrogation, Imprisonment, and Sanction in the Prison Drama of Seamus Byrne and Brendan Behan Charles F View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Lehigh University: Lehigh Preserve Lehigh University Lehigh Preserve Theses and Dissertations 2014 From the Political to the Personal:Interrogation, Imprisonment, and Sanction In the Prison Drama of Seamus Byrne and Brendan Behan Charles F. French Lehigh University Follow this and additional works at: http://preserve.lehigh.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation French, Charles F., "From the Political to the Personal:Interrogation, Imprisonment, and Sanction In the Prison Drama of Seamus Byrne and Brendan Behan" (2014). Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1487. This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Lehigh Preserve. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Lehigh Preserve. For more information, please contact [email protected]. From the Political to the Personal: Interrogation, Imprisonment, and Sanction In the Prison Drama of Seamus Byrne and Brendan Behan. by Charles F. French A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate and Research Committee of Lehigh University in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Lehigh University May 2014 © 2014 Copyright Charles F. French ii Approved and recommended for acceptance as a dissertation in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Charles French From the Political to the Personal: Interrogation, Imprisonment, and Sanction In the Prison Drama of Seamus Byrne and Brendan Behan. Dissertation Director Professor Elizabeth Fifer Approved Date Committee Members: Professor Elizabeth Fifer Professor Ed Lotto Professor Amardeep Singh Professor Pam Pepper (Name of Committee Member) iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are several people to whom I must give my thanks for assistance and guidance in the writing of this project. Dr. Elizabeth Fifer, Dr. Ed Lotto, Dr. Deep Singh, and Professor Pepper all provided deep guidance and valuable feedback without which, I could not have completed this work. To all, I give my thanks. To Dr. McKnight of DeSales University, I give thanks for the translation help which you provided in working with Irish Gaelic. To Vivy Steele and Mary Ann Haller, without your ongoing support, I would not have been able to complete this project. To Dr. Dawn Keetley, thank you for your support and encouragement. To my wife, Liz, you are my guiding light, my love, and my muse—for all this and much more, I thank you. This work is dedicated to you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chronology of Irish History vi Abstract 1 Introduction 2 Chapter One 16 Design For A Headstone: Religion/Politics,Understanding/Confusion, & Innocence/Guilt Chapter Two 92 The Quare Fellow: Alienation, Absurdity, Heteroglossia, Imprisonment, the Carnivalesque, and Execution Chapter Three 158 Carnivalesque, Heteroglossia, Syncretic Structure, Audience Implication, and Satire within the context of Imprisonment, Interrogation and Sanction in The Hostage Conclusion 222 Works Cited 230 Notes 240 Vita 252 v Chronology of Irish History 432 A.D. St. Patrick 1171 Henry II invades and conquers Ireland. 1845-1848 The Great Famine ~1900-~1926 Irish Literary Renaissance 1904 Seamus Byrne is born 1918 Easter Uprising 1919-1921 Irish War of Independence 1922-1923 Irish Civil War 1923 Brendan Behan is born. 1949 The Republic of Ireland is established 1950 Bryne, Seamus. Design For A Headstone 1954 Behan, Brendan. The Quare Fellow. 1958. Behan, Brendan. The Hostage. 1964 Brendan Behan dies. 1968 Seamus Byrne dies. vi ABSTRACT In my dissertation, I examine the multi-leveled metaphor of interrogation, imprisonment, and sanction in the 1950s Irish prison dramas of Seamus Byrne Design For A Headstone and Brendan Behan’s The Quare Fellow and The Hostage. In these plays, I explore the development of that metaphor and how it relates directly to the prison situation in the Republic of Ireland in the 1950s. During that revolutionary, socially, and politically stagnant decade in Ireland, these two playwrights examine the way that the Irish government adopted similar tactics in its treatment of prisoners as had England when it had ruled the island. Not only does a post-colonial subaltern circumstance exist in the legal and carceral realm, but also these plays show a connection of the Church and state and the implications of such a society on its penal system. In Chapter One, I examine Seamus Byrne’s Design For A Headstone. I argue that it is in the naturalistic, representational tradition of Ibsen and that through this direct portrayal of prison life, Byrne captures the irony of life and death struggles within a penal system. I argue that this play is important in the Irish canon of drama, even though Byrne is essentially a forgotten playwright. In Chapters Two and Three, I examine Brendan Behan’s The Quare Fellow and The Hostage. I explicate Behan’s movement away from representationalism to a form more closely resembling theater of the absurd. In The Quare Fellow he makes subtle movement away from realism, and in The Hostage plunges into a fluid and abstract form. In these plays, Behan satirizes the Irish government as well as that I.R.A. 1 INTRODUCTION “Tir gan teanga, tir gan anum.” (A land without a language is a land without a soul.) -- Irish saying. “But sure, thanks to God, the Free State didn’t change anything more than the badge on the warders’ caps.” -- Brendan Behan The Quare Fellow The contemporary world is often a dangerous place in which wars are fought almost without interruption, genocide is committed without significant interference or outrage from the community of nations, and people, in staggering numbers, are imprisoned in many countries, often for political reasons. While some inmates are incarcerated as criminals of a particular society that views jails as the simple and pervasive solution to complex social problems, all too often many people are jailed as political prisoners, or as Amnesty International calls them, “prisoners of conscience—that is, people imprisoned solely because of their beliefs, sex, ethnic origin, language, or religion” (6). It is a salient, disturbing, and informing fact of the twentieth century that an extraordinary number of people are in prisons throughout the world, with many awaiting execution. Upheavals, both social and political, abound throughout the world, and in some countries, art reflects that turmoil. In Ireland political violence has been constanti. In Ireland, a nation with an approximately eight hundred year span of subjugation to England, a relatively recent history of achieved independence, a civil war in the North that is currently under a shaky, but hopeful, truce, and economic despair for most of its existence replaced by an all too brief period of economic prosperity, its drama illustrates and engages that national strife. 2 While the subjugation of Ireland to Britain is centuries old and has influenced the drama of Ireland, ranging in concern from the Famine to the Troubles, I focus my study on Irish drama during the decade of the 1950s. The Irish nature, imbued with words and drama, moves both ways in influence: from the society to theatre and from theatre to society. Bill McDonnell, in Theatres of the Troubles: Theatre, Resistance And Liberation In Ireland, speaks of this connection: “Before it was enacted the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland was first imagined, in poetry, prose and, above all, in drama. Declan Kiberd writes that ‘no previous Irish insurrection had been imagined in such avowedly theatrical terms.”ii (3) The Irish dramatic awareness, heightened by the Irish Renaissance which was still occurring, imbued the learned leaders of the uprising with a sense of drama and audience as they used the post office on O’Connell Street as their staging area. They saw all of Ireland as their audience, indeed, perhaps the entire world. Irish Literature, as a whole, is political. Heinz Kosok, in “Doomed Volunteers: Two Great Political Plays From Ireland” quotes Frank O’ Connoriii who says “I know no other literature so closely connected to the immediate reality of Politics” (77). In the broader overview, Irish Literature is intimately connected in a myriad of ways with politics. Irish drama, in particular, is the most immediate of that political expression. Dawn Duncan, in Postcolonial Theory in Irish Drama From 1800-2000, speaks to that immediate connection and argues that drama is the form most useful in that theoretic discussion (1).iv I suggest drama is the literary form most useful in Irish political expression. Irish dramav, especially in the 20th century, often deals with political turmoil, sometimes expressed as internal or personal strife. It often uses prison as a setting as well as the actions of interrogation and sanction within that drama, creating a dramatic sub-genre of 3 the larger genre within Irish political theater. The actions of interrogation and sanction, often including executions, are central parts of this dramatic sub-genre. These actions extend into the world of political imprisonment, including both that of the government and of the revolutionaries, encompassing many aspects of the Irish existence. The stage represents Ireland and its turmoil as a quasi-police state in which people are under threat from the government of the Republic of Ireland, from the United Kingdom in the North of Ireland and from the revolutionaries who oppose the British presence in Northern Ireland. This potential to be captured or arrested, questioned and perhaps tortured, imprisoned and even executed was, unfortunately, an ever-present possibility for many people in Ireland in the second half of the twentieth century, and that threat is reflected in much of its drama.vi The entirety of the nearly 800 years of British domination of Ireland is omnipresent in Irish history, myth, culture, literature, and drama. These plays, set in the politically and culturally static 1950s, represent the continuing experience and consequences of that eight century long domination.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Joan Littlewood Education Pack in Association with Essentialdrama.Com Joan Littlewood Education Pack
    in association with Essentialdrama.com Joan LittlEWOOD Education pack in association with Essentialdrama.com Joan Littlewood Education PAck Biography 2 Artistic INtentions 5 Key Collaborators 7 Influences 9 Context 11 Productions 14 Working Method 26 Text Phil Cleaves Nadine Holdsworth Theatre Recipe 29 Design Phil Cleaves Further Reading 30 Cover Image Credit PA Image Joan LIttlewood: Education pack 1 Biography Early Life of her life. Whilst at RADA she also had Joan Littlewood was born on 6th October continued success performing 1914 in South-West London. She was part Shakespeare. She won a prize for her of a working class family that were good at verse speaking and the judge of that school but they left at the age of twelve to competition, Archie Harding, cast her as get work. Joan was different, at twelve she Cleopatra in Scenes from Shakespeare received a scholarship to a local Catholic for BBC a overseas radio broadcast. That convent school. Her place at school meant proved to be one of the few successes that she didn't ft in with the rest of her during her time at RADA and after a term family, whilst her background left her as an she dropped out early in 1933. But the outsider at school. Despite being a misft, connection she made with Harding would Littlewood found her feet and discovered prove particularly infuential and life- her passion. She fell in love with the changing. theatre after a trip to see John Gielgud playing Hamlet at the Old Vic. Walking to Find Work Littlewood had enjoyed a summer in Paris It had me on the edge of my when she was sixteen and decided to seat all afternoon.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ideal of Ensemble Practice in Twentieth-Century British Theatre, 1900-1968 Philippa Burt Goldsmiths, University of London P
    The Ideal of Ensemble Practice in Twentieth-century British Theatre, 1900-1968 Philippa Burt Goldsmiths, University of London PhD January 2015 1 I hereby declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own and has not been and will not be submitted, in whole or in part, to any other university for the award of any other degree. Philippa Burt 2 Acknowledgements This thesis benefitted from the help, support and advice of a great number of people. First and foremost, I would like to thank Professor Maria Shevtsova for her tireless encouragement, support, faith, humour and wise counsel. Words cannot begin to express the depth of my gratitude to her. She has shaped my view of the theatre and my view of the world, and she has shown me the importance of maintaining one’s integrity at all costs. She has been an indispensable and inspirational guide throughout this process, and I am truly honoured to have her as a mentor, walking by my side on my journey into academia. The archival research at the centre of this thesis was made possible by the assistance, co-operation and generosity of staff at several libraries and institutions, including the V&A Archive at Blythe House, the Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive, the National Archives in Kew, the Fabian Archives at the London School of Economics, the National Theatre Archive and the Clive Barker Archive at Rose Bruford College. Dale Stinchcomb and Michael Gilmore were particularly helpful in providing me with remote access to invaluable material held at the Houghton Library, Harvard and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin, respectively.
    [Show full text]
  • Michael Barker
    Michael Barker: An Inventory of His Collection Relating to Joan Littlewood and the Theatre Workshop Descriptive Summary Creator Barker, Michael Title Michael Barker Collection of Joan Littlewood and the Theatre Workshop Dates: ca. 1937-1975 Extent 15 boxes, 2 oversize folders Abstract The collection documents the activities of the Theatre group and Littlewood's activities from about 1937-1975. Barker worked as Littlewood's assistant during the 1960s and '70s. The Collection is primarily composed of about eighty scripts and screenplays dating from Barker's years with Littlewood. Some additional correspondence and a series of notebooks kept by Littlewood are also present. RLIN Record ID TXRC97-A3 Language English. Access Open for research Administrative Information Acquisition Purchase, 1980, Reg. # 8669 Processed by Bob Taylor, 1996 Repository: Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin Barker, Michael Biographical Sketch Michael Barker, who assembled this collection of Joan Littlewood materials, worked with her in the 1960s and '70s as an assistant and was involved both in theatrical endeavors as well as the street theater ventures. Joan Maud Littlewood was born into a working-class family in London's East End in October 1914. Early demonstrating an acute mind and an artistic bent she won scholarships to a Catholic school and then to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Quickly realizing that RADA was neither philosophically nor socially congenial, she departed to study art. In 1934--still short of twenty years of age--she arrived in Manchester to work for the BBC. Littlewood soon met Jimmy Miller (Ewan MacColl) and collaborated with him in the Theatre of Action, a leftist drama group.
    [Show full text]
  • Theatre Archive Project: Interview with Derek Paget
    THEATRE ARCHIVE PROJECT http://sounds.bl.uk Derek Paget – interview transcript Interviewer: Hannah Dodd 4 December 2007 Stage Manager. Lionel Bart; Peter Brook's King Lear; directors; Dynamo; The Hostage; King Lear; King's Head Theatre; lighting; Joan Littlewood; Oh! What a Lovely War; John Osborne; Howard Panter; Royal Court Theatre; stage management; Theatre Project Company; Theatre Workshop; touring; West End productions; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. HD: Could we begin by discussing how you got into theatre in the first place? DP: Sure. I was a University actor and director and at the latter end of my university career at the University of East Anglia I did a bit of work in the Maddermarket Theatre in Norwich - which is a semi-professional theatre, or it was then, I don’t know if it still is – a professional director and stage manager. Basically they took me on and helped me out and gave me some introductions and I used those contacts to do the usual thing – writing to people saying ‘please will you take me on’ and eventually I got one. HD: And when did you first get involved in the Theatre Workshop? DP: Theatre Workshop was 1971 - I started ’72 sorry: I worked with the lighting designer at the Theatre Royal in 1971, and he alerted me to the fact that there was a job going in early 1972. HD: OK, and how long did you work in that establishment and in the King’s Head Theatre. DP: It was actually quite a brief time working at Stratford East, Theatre Workshop, it was pretty much eight or nine months in 1972 and I was working at the King’s Head during the same time.
    [Show full text]
  • Ewan Maccoll, “The Brilliant Young Scots Dramatist”: Regional Myth-Making and Theatre Workshop
    Ewan MacColl, “the brilliant young Scots dramatist”: Regional myth-making and Theatre Workshop Claire Warden, University of Lincoln Moving to London In 1952, Theatre Workshop had a decision to make. There was a growing sense that the company needed a permanent home (Goorney 1981: 85) and, rather than touring plays, to commit to a particular community. As they created their politically challenging, artistically vibrant work, group members sought a geographical stability, a chance to respond to and become part of a particular location. And, more than this, the group wanted a building to house them after many years of rented accommodation, draughty halls and borrowed rooms. Ewan MacColl and Joan Littlewood’s company had been founded in Manchester in 1945, aiming to create confrontational plays for the post-war audience. But the company actually had its origins in a number of pre-War Mancunian experiments. Beginning as the agit-prop Red Megaphones in 1931, MacColl and some local friends performed short sketches with songs, often discussing particularly Lancastrian issues, such as loom strikes and local unemployment. With the arrival of Littlewood, the group was transformed into, first, Theatre of Action (1934) and then Theatre Union (1936). Littlewood and MacColl collaborated well, with the former bringing some theatrical expertise from her brief spell at RADA (Holdsworth 2006: 45) (though, interestingly in light of the argument here, this experience largely taught Littlewood what she did not want in the theatre!) and the latter his experience of performing on the streets of Salford. Even in the early days of Theatre Workshop, as the company sought to create a formally innovative and thematically agitational theatre, the founders brought their own experiences of the Capital and the regions, of the centre and periphery.
    [Show full text]
  • Special Trees Project
    Spring 2015 1 News from Loughton Town Council Spring 2015 No 68 Special trees project WE ARE delighted to announce one where we, and the people the launch of the “Loughton we care about, can be safe, Special Trees” project to find happy and healthy. An attractive which trees matter most to the environment helps us to live people of our town. richer lives in a whole variety of Residents are invited to ways. A big part of that is having nominate their favourite local trees and not just anywhere and trees – those which have a anyhow, but the right trees in the personal connection for them right places. and to give us the reasons why Sometimes these trees are they matter particularly to you. just functional - say helping These can be special trees in screen off an unattractive view public spaces or private gardens or providing shelter for birds, or and, of course, we won’t forget other wildlife. Trees can also be the importance of the owners! special in their own right. This We want tree owners to be may be because of their great proud of their trees and we think age – Loughton has many trees that to know that your trees are dating from 1760 or even earlier, special will make most people which could reasonably be proud. We will try to make sure described as living monuments. you have extra help and advice if Other trees are special to us in you should ever need it. more personal ways because This venture follows on from of their size, how they mark a the Loughton Community Tree particular location or frame a Strategy and from the Favourite view, because of their links to Trees project to find the 50 most special people or events or, special trees for the Epping not least, purely for their great Forest district as a whole.
    [Show full text]
  • Theatre Archive Project Archive
    University of Sheffield Library. Special Collections and Archives Ref: MS 349 Title: Theatre Archive Project: Archive Scope: A collection of interviews on CD-ROM with those visiting or working in the theatre between 1945 and 1968, created by the Theatre Archive Project (British Library and De Montfort University); also copies of some correspondence Dates: 1958-2008 Level: Fonds Extent: 3 boxes Name of creator: Theatre Archive Project Administrative / biographical history: Beginning in 2003, the Theatre Archive Project is a major reinvestigation of British theatre history between 1945 and 1968, from the perspectives of both the members of the audience and those working in the theatre at the time. It encompasses both the post-war theatre archives held by the British Library, and also their post-1968 scripts collection. In addition, many oral history interviews have been carried out with visitors and theatre practitioners. The Project began at the University of Sheffield and later transferred to De Montfort University. The archive at Sheffield contains 170 CD-ROMs of interviews with theatre workers and audience members, including Glenda Jackson, Brian Rix, Susan Engel and Michael Frayn. There is also a collection of copies of correspondence between Gyorgy Lengyel and Michel and Suria Saint Denis, and between Gyorgy Lengyel and Sir John Gielgud, dating from 1958 to 1999. Related collections: De Montfort University Library Source: Deposited by Theatre Archive Project staff, 2005-2009 System of arrangement: As received Subjects: Theatre Conditions of access: Available to all researchers, by appointment Restrictions: None Copyright: According to document Finding aids: Listed MS 349 THEATRE ARCHIVE PROJECT: ARCHIVE 349/1 Interviews on CD-ROM (Alphabetical listing) Interviewee Abstract Interviewer Date of Interview Disc no.
    [Show full text]
  • KS5 Theatre Makers in Practice
    Theatre makers in practice KS5 Alison Winter Alison Winter is Head of Theatre KS5 - EDEXCEL COMPONENT 3, SECTION C at Hurtwood House in Surrey, a private sixth form with a strong reputation for the Creative Arts. She has a BA Hons in Drama from Exeter University and a Introduction PCGE from the Institute of The following scheme of work looks at how to apply the methodology of Joan Littlewood to a Education, University of London. production of Sophocles’ Antigone in relation to Edexcel A level, Component 3, Section C. She has taught at Hurtwood for This final question of the Edexcel A level written paper, Interpreting one performance text nearly 20 years becoming Head in the light of one practitioner for a contemporary audience, is worth 24 marks. The whole of Department in 2012. As well paper is marked out of 80 and is worth 40 per cent of the whole A level. This essay asks as teaching in the state sector students to put themselves in the role of a director. They need to be able to craft a detailed in South London, she has also outline communicating their knowledge of the text, Antigone, and its original performing worked extensively in the media conditions, together with their understanding of a key practitioner’s methods. This scheme as a producer/presenter for Forces of work focuses on Joan Littlewood. Not only are they expected to convey this, but be able to Broadcasting and the BBC. apply them to a specific unseen extract and target them to the key demands of the question.
    [Show full text]
  • British Writers and MI5 Surveillance, 1930–1960 James Smith Frontmatter More Information
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-03082-4 - British Writers and MI5 Surveillance, 1930–1960 James Smith Frontmatter More information BRITISH WRITERS AND MI5 SURVEILLANCE, 1930–1960 Britain’s domestic intelligence agencies maintained secret records on many left-wing writers after the First World War. Drawing on recently declassified material from 1930 to 1960, this revealing study examines how leading figures in Britain’s literary scene fell under MI5 and Special Branch surveillance, and the surprising extent to which writers became willing participants in the world of covert intelligence and propaganda. Chapters devoted to W. H. Auden and his associates, theatre pioneers Ewan MacColl and Joan Littlewood, George Orwell, and others describe methods used by MI5 to gather information through and about the cultural world. The book also investigates how these covert agencies assessed the political influence of such writers, providing scholars and students of twentieth-century British literature an unprecedented account of clandestine operations in popular culture. James Smith is Lecturer in English Literature at Durham University. Author of a critical study on the work of Terry Eagleton (2008), he has published widely in journals such as New Theatre Quarterly and Literature and History. He received his PhD from Cambridge in 2007. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-03082-4 - British Writers and MI5 Surveillance, 1930–1960 James Smith Frontmatter More information © in this
    [Show full text]
  • Theatre Archive Project: Interview with Josephine Smith
    THEATRE ARCHIVE PROJECT http://sounds.bl.uk Josephine Smith – interview transcript Interviewer: Jacky Hall 29 March 2007 Wardrobe Mistress at Theatre Workshop. Actors; audiences; A Taste of Honey; budgets; John Bury; Harry H. Corbett; costume making; costume maintenance; critics; foreign appreciation; The Good Soldier Schweik; lifestyle; Joan Littlewood; Look Back in Anger; Ewan MacColl; productions; Gerry Raffles; Red Roses for Me; rehearsals; Theatre Royal, Stratford East; Theatre Workshop; touring; Kenneth Tynan; wages. JH: First of all, if you could just tell me about how you started working in theatre? JS: Well… well, I was at school with somebody who joined Theatre Workshop. And I heard that she’d joined, and when they came to London with Uranium 235… another friend - I was working doing medical art, which was dead boring, frankly, but there we are - she said, ‘Well, go and see them, and see how, you know, what it is’. So I went - she persuaded me to go, and I did and I met up with Doreen [Warburton, the school friend] and said I was interested in theatre. I was interested… it goes back to schooldays, I was interested in costumes: they got me doing costumes for the school plays, and so that’s… Doreen knew of my interests and that was that. Joan [Littlewood] said, ‘Well, we could probably take you on, but’ she said, ‘you won’t get any money, and you’ll have to support yourself, you know, we all have to do our best to, you know, get by’. So the first play I dressed was The Travellers,and that went up to the Edinburgh Festival in 1952, I think, yes, it would be.
    [Show full text]
  • Talking out of Tune
    Talking Out of Tune Remembering British Theatre 1944-56 Kate Lucy Harris Ph.D. School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics University of Sheffield December 2008 1 Summary of Thesis This thesis explores how British Theatre represented and reacted to cultural and social changes between 1944 and 1956. It is closely linked to the oral history strand of the AHRC University of Sheffield British Library Theatre Archive Project <http://www.bl.ukltheatrearchive>. The five chapters focus on distinct subject areas in order to explore the vibrant diversity of the period. However, they are united by an overarching narrative which seeks to consider the relationship between memory and history. The first chapter is based on the oral history strand. It explores the different ways in which the Project's methodology has shaped both the interviewee testimony and my own research. Chapter 2 focuses on the changing historical perceptions of the popular West End plays of the day. Case studies of plays are used to compare the responses of audiences and critics in the 1940s and 50s, with the critical commentaries that surround the plays and playwrights today. The third chapter explores the relationship between BBC television drama and theatre. It assesses the impact that cross fertilisation had on both media by examining plays, productions and policies. Chapters 4 and 5 focus on two of the theatre companies of the period - Theatre Workshop and the Old Vic Theatre Company. Chapter 4 explores the impact that Theatre Workshop's early years as a touring group had on the development of the company. It draws on new oral history testimonies from former company members who joined the group in the 1940s and early 50s.
    [Show full text]
  • Reading the Old Left in the Ewan Maccoll and Joan Littlewood's
    Reading the Old Left in the Ewan MacColl and Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop and Beyond: in Joan Littlewood’s post-theatrical engagements in the 1960s. Fatine Bahar Karlidag A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2017 Reading Committee: Stefka Mihaylova, Chair Odai Johnson Scott Magelssen Barry Witham Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Drama ©Copyright 2017 Fatine Bahar Karlidag 2 University of Washington Abstract Reading the Old Left in the Ewan MacColl and Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop and Beyond: in Joan Littlewood’s post-theatrical engagements in the 1960s. Fatine Bahar Karlidag Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Dr. Stefka Mihaylova School of Drama Based on archival research, recent Joan Littlewood centenary events and contemporary scholarship on the Theatre Workshop of Joan Littlewood and Ewan MacColl, this dissertation proposes to take sides with the radical class politics of the Old Left, or Communism, to read the legacy of MacColl-Littlewood collaboration in theatre, and its continuing impacts on Littlewood’s post-theatrical work in the 1960s’ New Left. This is to demystify the ‘genius’ aura bestowed upon Joan Littlewood; to re-instate Ewan MacColl’s contribution to the legacy of this ground-breaking theatre famously known as that which revolutionized the West End; to retrofit Theatre Workshop as a sample ensemble of the larger frame of the radical left-wing interwar theatres while acknowledging the independent evolution of their work into 1950s, and to further complicate the thematically and textually oriented analytical narratives’ efforts to analyze Theatre Workshop productions.
    [Show full text]