British Drama

TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITISH DRAMA (3)



1960s: Joe Orton: Orton’s distinction was to recreate the comedy of manners adding a strong admixture of farce and fantasy. He learned from the great forerunners, such as Congreve or Wilde, but though, like theirs, his plays contain a poised wit, the poise in Orton comes not from a confident class superiority, but from a confident classlessness. Inachieving this rare classlessness, Orton’s homosexuality may have played its part: homosexuality has always penetrated determinedly through class barriers. There is also, particularly in Loot (1965), a farcical action which proclaims a faith in anarchy as a way of life, and points up the violence and intolerance inherent in social organisms, in the whole set-up of law and order. His satire on thepolice in Loot, seemingly way-out farce, was in fact based on fascinated observations of actual police behaviour. Orton fought against authority with the two weapons he wielded most efficiently: anarchic comedy and priapic energy. Loot is a dark farce that satirises the Roman Catholic Church, social attitudes to death, and the integrity of the police force. It follows the fortunes of two young thieves,Hal and Dennis. Together they rob the bank next to the funeral parlour where Dennis works and return to Hal's home to hide the money. Hal's mother has just died and the money is hidden in her coffin while her body keeps on appearing around the house. Upon the arrival of Inspector Truscott the plot turns topsy turvy as Hal and Dennis try to keep him off their trail. The five major comedies thatOrton completed before his untimely death were calculated to outrage. In Orton’s work, moral floors dissolve leaving a space which is both amoral and, by extension, apolitical. If some of his critics condemn him for never exploring the consequences of the social questions he raises, it should be allowed that the very velocity of his verbal comedy never really allows him to stay for answers.1950s-70s: “Theatre of the Absurd”: Samuel Beckett: Samuel Beckett (1906 – 1989) was an Irish avant-garde writer, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human culture, often coupled with black comedy. Beckett is widely regarded as among the most influential writers of the 20th century. Strongly influenced by JamesJoyce, he is considered one of the last modernists. As an inspiration to many later writers, he is also sometimes considered one of the first postmodernists. He is one of the key writers in what Martin Esslin called the "Theatre of the Absurd". His work became increasingly minimalist in his later career. Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature.

During the 15 years subsequent to thewar, Beckett produced four major full-length stage plays: En attendant Godot (written 1948–1949; Waiting for Godot), Fin de partie (1955–1957; Endgame), Krapp's Last Tape (1958), and Happy Days (1961). These plays—which are often considered, rightly or wrongly, to have been instrumental in the so-called "Theatre of the Absurd"—deal in a very blackly humorous way with themes similar to those of theroughly contemporary existentialist thinkers. The term "Theatre of the Absurd" was coined by Martin Esslin in a book of the same name; Beckett and Godot were centerpieces of the book. Esslin claimed these plays were the fulfillment of Albert Camus's concept of "the absurd"; this is one reason Beckett is often falsely labelled as an existentialist (this is based on the assumption that Camus was anexistentialist, though he in fact broke off from the existentialist movement and founded his own philosophy). Though many of the themes are similar, Beckett had little affinity for existentialism as a whole.

Broadly speaking, the plays deal with the subject of despair and the will to survive in spite of that despair, in the face of an uncomprehending and incomprehensible world. The words of...