Five approaches to political theatre: Howard Brenton, David Hare, David Edgar, Roger Howard, Caryl Churchill and Howard Barker

• Main Author: Martin H. Peacock
• Format: Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1990
• Subjects: Studies in the Creative Arts and Writing not elsewhere classified; Literature; Political theatre; Bourgeois; White Sea
• Online Access: https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Five_approaches_to_political_theatre_Howard_Brenton_David_Hare_David_Edgar_Roger_Howard_Caryl_Churchill_and_Howard_Barker/9325124

This thesis studies mainstream British political drama staged during the late 1960s, the 1970s and early 1980s. It considers the work of Howard Brenton, David Hare, David Edgar, Roger Howard, Caryl Churchill and Howard Barker through a close textual analysis of a carefully selected number of their plays. Throughout my concern has been to, firstly, consider the relationship between dramatic form and political content; secondly, the dynamic relationship between dramatic content and the cultural and political environment of Britain since 1968; and thirdly, the use of history as a means of addressing contemporary issues. The first chapter is a discussion of Christie in Love (196R), Revenge (1969), Hitler Dances (1972), Magnificence (1973) and The Churchill Play (1974). It charts Brenton's developing dramatic and political perspectives. With reference to the ideology of the French Situationists I question the effectiveness of an anarchic or agitational approach to political theatre. In the second chapter David Hare's Plenty (1978) and David Edgar's Maydays (1983) are discussed. Using the named plays as examples and with passing reference to John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1956) I consider how Edgar and Hare attempt to utilize the realistic and naturalistic conventions of the bourgeois theatre to dramatize the personal and political experience of post-war British and European history. The third chapter discusses David Edgar's Destiny (1976) and Roger Howard's White Sea (1978) by using the theory and practice of Brecht's theatre as a starting point: it considers how Edgar and Howard attempt to focus the attention of the audience upon the political, rather than the personal, dynamics of historical and contemporary experience. In Chapter IV, through a detailed analysis of Caryl Churchill's Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (1976) and Roger Howard's Siege (1980), I examine the reasons for, and resulting problems of, the dramatization of historical subject matter. In particular I consider how language is used towards the ...