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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 I 75- 11,354 HARRIS, Judith Dotson, 1948- AN UNHOLY ENCOUNTER: THE EARLY WORKS OF DAVID STOREY. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1974 Theater Xerox UniversityMicrofilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 © 1975 JUDITH DOTSON HARRIS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED AN UNHOLY ENCOUNTERS THE EARLY WORKS OF DAVID STOREY DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Judith Dotson Harris» A.B., M.A The Ohio State University 197^ Reading Committee s Approved By Dr. John C. Morrow Dr. Roy H. Bowen Dr. George P. Crepeau ^ 7 C. Advisor Department of Theatre ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To the three gentlemen who kindly and patiently guided me through this study, Dr, John Morrow, Dr, Roy Bowen, and Dr, George Crepeau, I give heartfelt thanks. Dr. Morrow's perceptive analyses were particularly valuable In addition, I am grateful to Dr, Lee Rigsby for his praise and general insight into Storey's work. My genuine gratitude also goes to my husband Jerry for his editorial contributions and for his extraordinary tolerance and understanding of my fluctuating temperament during the preparation of this study. Finally, I would like to extend thanks to my typist Joy Bartlett, who is not only extremely efficient, but patient as well. VITA May 16, 19^-8 , . * Born - Matewan, West Virginia 1967 < , ' 0 0 0 0 * A.B., Morehead State University, Mo rehead, Kentucky 1967 - 1968 0 „ „ Teacher, Canal Winchester Schools, Canal Winchester, Ohio I969 ....... MeA., Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 1968 - 1969 . e . Teaching Assistant, Department of English, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 1969 - 1972 0 0 « NDEA Title IV Fellow, Department of Theatre, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1972 - 1973 « « ■> Instructor, Division of Humanities, Southern West Virginia Community College, Williamson, West Virginia 1973 - 197^ o * « Assistant Professor, Division of Humanities, Southern West Virginia Community College, Williamson, West Virginia FIELDS OF STUDY Major Fields Theatre Studies in Dramatic Literature. Professor John C, Morrow Studies in Dramatic Criticism, Professors John C. Morrow and George P. Crepeau Studies in Acting and Directing. Professor Roy H. Bowen Studies in Theatre History. Professors John C. Morrow and John H. McDowell Studies in Photography and Cinema. Professor Ali Elgabri TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....... ........... li VITA o.ooo.9o8o0eoeoo.0ooo.o XXX INTRODUCTION ........ 0 0 0 a. ...sa. 1 Chapter I. THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND.......... 25 II. THE EARLY NOVELS . , . 50 This Sporting Life Thxs Sporting Life, the Film Flxght into Camden Radcliffe III. TWO EARLY P L A Y S ......................... 130 The Restoration of Arnold Middleton In Celebration IV. THREE LATER P L A Y S ................. 191 The Contractor Home The Changing Room CONCLUSION 280 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 3 0 6 v INTRODUCTION A professional painter* novelist* and playwright* David Storey is a member of that phenomenal generation of alienated and angry young artists freed by John Osborne's unexpected success in 1956# Twelve years ago with his three novels This Sporting Life* Flight into Camden, and Radcliffe* Storey was considered a young working-class novelist with reasonable talent and promise. "If John Braine is a good regional novelist," John Coleman assured readers of The Spectator, "Storey is a better one*"- while the Daily Tele­ graph called him "the leading novelist of his generation."2 Storey was publicly silent, however, during the years between 1963 and 1967. Then he suddenly erupted in a torrent of extraordinary playwrighting, offering English playgoers five full-length plays in five yearsj The Resto­ ration of Arnold Middleton (1967), In Celebration (1969). The Contractor (1969), Home (1970), and The Changing Room (1971). Now considered primarily a playwright, Storey is a remarkable example of an artist whose career has success­ fully spanned not only two genres but also several waves of the so-called British "angry" movement which began in the middle fifties and has continued with fluctuating vitality during the two decades since. 2 The purpose of this study is to critically examine David Storey's early work— the three novels and five plays mentioned above— the fictional world each presents, the technical means used to achieve those worlds, and ulti­ mately,, the total world vision the works comprise. Obvi­ ously the major thrust of this study will be thematic, but careful consideration will be given to Storey's fictional and dramatic methods as well. This study's primary thesis will rest upon the argument that in his early work David Storey's artistic vision underwent a profound change from the novels to the plays, that this progression can be easily traced in the works by careful critical examination, and that certain fairly direct correspondences exist between the vision that the works express and Storey's own life experi­ ence, In this study Storey shall be considered primarily a playwright and greater emphasis shall be given the plays, although the place of the novels in the overall body of Storey's work must certainly be considered. Storey's early work falls clearly into two separate but not altogether equal partsj a) the novels, written be­ tween 1959 and 19^39 which reflect the mood and concerns of post-war Britain and the angry young men; and b) the plays, a larger and more recent body of work prepared since 1966 with an emphasis on the need for individual responsibility in the social milieu and for affirmation of existence in general. All of Storey's work, critics have agreed, is well-written, intelligent, and technically competent. Many have called him fascinating and some, brilliant. The plays comprise a wider and more intricate world view than the novels, however, and for many critics, a far more interest­ ing one. In addition, the plays offer greater technical variety and skill. In his novels Storey poses questions about the nature of existence and man’s place in relation to other men. Characters in the novels are unhappy, searching, un- free creatures who struggle fruitlessly for understanding and acceptance. In the plays, however, Storey answers with increasing vigor the problems which plagued him in the novels, and he does so with a growing sense of affirmation. Characters in the plays, from Arnold Middleton to the rugby team of The Changing Room, learn that the human condition requires acceptance of social demands and that there are ways in which one can accept those demands and become absorbed in the society at large while still retaining a measure of identity and integrity. Storey is not a play­ wright of protest, but a poet of reconciliation. Although Storey is still a young man, he clearly expresses in his eight early works a total artistic vision, a world view which denies the legitimacy of perpetual alienation and ultima"' ly affirms reconciliation with, and adjustment to, the surrounding society. Storey expressed his attitude toward human existence in a review of R. D. Laing’s The Politics of Experience prepared for the New Societyt Society, however condemned, is the medium we live in. Its disease9 its insanity, has to be suffered. Having washed his hands of the world in an act of self-absolution9 it must now be Laing's task to come back and reclaim it. For the crucified the resur­ rection is the thing of the deepest meaning. For the beautiful and the terrible thing is that the birds still s i n g .3 Reclaiming the world is ultimately the task Storey embraces as an artist. The overall movement in Storey's early work can be traced in a steady rise from the bitter negation of Arthur Machin's deterministic universe to the swelling of pride and pleasure felt by the individual members of The Changing Room's rugby team who, working as a unit, overcome the opposing team on a cold and bitter day.

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