ALAN BENNETT Studies in Modern Drama Kimball King, Series Editor
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ALAN BENNETT Studies in Modern Drama Kimball King, Series Editor THEATRE UNDER DECONSTRUCTION? PAST CRIMSON, PAST WOE A Question of Approach The Shakespeare—Beckett Connection by Stratos E. Constantinidis edited by Anne Marie Drew THE PINTER ETHIC HOLLYWOOD ON STAGE The Erotic Aesthetic Playwrights Evaluate the Culture Industry by Penelope Prentice edited by Kimball King BARNESTORM BLACK WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS The Plays of Peter Barnes Visions on the American Stage by Bernard F. Dukore edited by Carol P. Marsh-Lockett NEW THEATRE VISTAS READING STEPHEN SONDHEIM Modern Movements in International A Collection of Critical Essays Theatre edited by Sandor Goodhart edited by Judy Lee Oliva ALAN BENNETT DAVID MAMET'S A Critical Introduction GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS by Joseph H. O'Mealy Text and Performance edited by Leslie Kane ALAN BENNETT A Critical Introduction Joseph H. O'Mealy Routledge Taylor & Francis Group New York London Published in 2001 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Published in Great Britain by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint o f the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2001 by Routledge All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or repro duced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photo copying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data O ’Mealy, Joseph H., 1948- Alan Bennett : a critical introduction / by Joseph O ’Mealy p. cm. — (Studies in modern drama ; v. 27) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8153-3540-7 1. Bennett, Alan, 1934—Criticism and interpretation. I.Title. II. Series. PR6052.E5 Z8 2001 822’.914— dc21 00-065301 For Ryan, Michael, and Katherine This page intentionally left blank Contents Abbreviations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction: Who Is Alan Bennett? xiii 1. Early Stage Works: From Beyond the Fringe to 3 Habeas Corpus 2. Early Television Plays: 1972-1979 19 3. Deeper North: Enjoy, Objects of Affection, and 33 A Private Function 4. Spies and Writers: Burgess, Blunt, Kafka, and Proust 55 5. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life: Talking Heads 85 6. Millennium Approaches: Talking Heads 2 109 7. Adapting to Stage and Screen: Joe Orton, Mr. Toad, 131 and George III 8. Conclusion: In the Van(guard) 149 Chronology 159 Selected Bibliography 161 Index 165 vn This page intentionally left blank Abbreviations CTSUI The Clothes They Stood Up in FYO Forty Years On and Other Plays LV The Lady in the Van MGIII The Madness of George HI MKG The Madness of King George OA Objects of Affection and Other Plays for Television OS Office Suite P2 Plays Two PUYE Prick Up Your Ears: The Screenplay PF A Private Function TH Talking Heads TH2 Talking Heads 2 TKP Two Kafka Plays US "Untold Stories" WW The Wind in the Willows WD The Writer in Disguise WH Writing Home IX This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments " y debts to friends, colleagues, and family extend over two continents and several states. In England, I am especially indebted to Olwen Terris of the M!.Britis h Film Institute, a fellow Bennett enthusiast, for helping me gain access to videos of Bennett's plays; to Ken Budge for regular gifts of Bennett books and videos; and to Tony Bodinetz and the late Allison Trumpy for their gifts of videos, books, and the address of Alan Bennett's agent. In California, I received much-appreciated help and encouragement from Kathleen Namphy, who spon- sored my research at the Stanford University Library; from Peter Smith and Helen Pellegrin, who listened and offered valuable advice; from Barbara Kalhammer, another Bennett enthusiast, whose generous reading of an early draft of the book encouraged me greatly; and from Katherine Wright, whose editing skills make this book look good, despite its author's failings. In Hawai'i, I have profited enormously from the judgment of my friends in the English department of the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. I am particularly indebted to Nell Altizer, Miriam Fuchs, Craig Howes, and Kathy Phillips for their reading of the whole manuscript, and for sug- gestions for improvement that are gratefully incorporated throughout the book. I am also grateful to Bruce Bruschi for bringing the Alec Guinness material to my attention and for getting me a hot-off-the-press copy of the play version of The Lady in the Van and to Alan Holzman, who collected the reviews and found me hard-to-get tickets to The Lady in the Van. Special thanks go to Cornelia Moore, who as dean of the College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature gave me released time to pursue my research and writing, and to her successor, Ricky Jacobs, who allowed me to put the completion of the manuscript at the top of my duties as acting associate dean. In my office, June Nakaki and Michelle Aquino have earned my gratitude for their uncomplaining assistance with the final preparations of the manuscript. Dave Carter deserves special mention for his many years of encour- Xi Xll Acknowledgments agement and his faith that I had at least one book in me. Last but far from least, I would like to acknowledge Alan Bennett's role in all this. Though he declined my request for an interview, he did give this project his usual equivocal blessing. On the back of a postcard of Degas's The Rehearsal from the Frick Collection in New York, he wrote: I'm hopeless at talking about my own stuff and have always avoided it—if I could talk about the plays I wouldn't have written them. This isn't meant to be rude. I've said everything I want to say in the various introductions. ... I hope this doesn't seem ungrateful and I much appreciate your interest. Treat me like a dead author and make it up—no-one will know. Despite Mr. Bennett's advice, in the pages that follow I haven't made anything up, so far as I can tell, although I have speculated where the evidence seems to warrant it. And I am certain that I have not treated Alan Bennett as a dead author. On the contrary, I have tried to present him as a vital presence in the contemporary theater, ever ready to surprise, instruct, and delight. Introduction: Who Is Alan Bennett? hen I began writing this book and mentioned its subject to American col- leagues and friends, I was almost always greeted with polite silence as Wthey mentally tried to fit the name to a body of work. Assuming they had misheard me, and grasping at a familiar Bennett, some would ask, "Arnold Bennett?" English colleagues and friends, on the other hand, knew immediately who I meant. They didn't need to read the dust jackets of Alan Bennett's books to know that he is "one of the country's best loved writers," or even "England's best- loved playwright "(CTS (7, 1)—a national favorite.1 Bennett's ascension to household word status in England did not, however, occur overnight. Though he has been in the public eye since the early 1960s, his most lav- ish popular successes have come only in the last decade or so. The Royal National Theatre staged three of his plays in rapid succession—Single Spies2 (1988), his adap- tation of The Wind in the Willows (1990), and The Madness of George III (1991). Writing Home, his 1994 collection of diary entries, prefaces to plays, and book reviews, was a number-one bestseller in Britain, selling more than 200,000 copies in hardcover,3 and revivals of his stage plays Habeas Corpus (1973) and Kafka's Dick (1986) were successfully mounted in the West End in 1996 and 1998, respec- tively. Talking Heads (1988), a highly acclaimed TV series consisting of six dra- matic monologues, and Talking Heads 2 (1998), a follow-up series of six more, have become his signature pieces among a certain portion of the English viewing public, achieving almost cult status. In late 1999, the announcement that Bennett was dramatizing his story The Lady in the Van, with Maggie Smith in the title role, caused a virtual stampede at the box office, with advance ticket sales of over one million pounds. Despite its flattering sound, the title of "England's best-loved playwright" has become a double-edged sword for Bennett. It conjures up a warm and cozy link xm XIV Introduction: Who Is Alan Bennett? with the reading and viewing public similar to the sentimentalizing cults that once dominated appreciation of Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope.4 At its embarrassing worst, this lovable image has given one English journalist license to dub Bennett "the National Teddy Bear."5 At its misleading best, it has obscured or distorted Bennett's considerable gifts and placed him off limits for critical scrutiny and seri- ous analysis. Although the quality British newspapers—the Financial Times, the Independent, the Guardian—have usually reviewed his plays as serious works writ- ten by an important playwright, until very recently few literary critics have given them more than a glance. To date, only two full-length studies of his work have appeared.6 Few surveys of contemporary British drama mention Bennett. He does- n't merit even a line, for instance, in Christopher Innes's Modern British Drama, 1890-1990, which devotes dozens of pages to Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Caryl Churchill, and Alan Ayckbourn, to name only Bennett's most conspicuous contem- poraries.7 This would not surprise him.