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At ease in a bright red tie : writings on theatre / John Whiting ; edited by Ronald Hayman.
LIBRA PN2595 .W478 1999
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Whiting, John, 1917-1963.
- Series:
- Modern playwrights
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Theater--Great Britain--History--20th century.
- Theater.
- Great Britain.
- History.
- English drama--20th century--History and criticism.
- English drama.
- Genre:
- Fiction.
- Physical Description:
- 170 pages ; 21 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- London : Oberon, 1999.
- Summary:
- This collection of distinguished writings by John Whiting first emerged during the most exciting and eventful decade in twentieth-century British theatre -- 1952 to 1962. Working-class characters were forcefully introduced into mainstream theatre as more than just stereotypes in small roles. Phrases such as 'kitchen sink' and 'angry young man' were coined. The decade also saw the creation of two subsidised companies: the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
- John Whiting was a highly original playwright as well as a formidable critic. When he died prematurely in 1963, at the age of forty-five, Peggy Ashcroft praised his 'marvellously balanced attitude'. Perhaps Whiting's central concern was to champion the individual, against a Brechtian focus on 'the group'. He writes in this collection. 'I am not committed to any specific movement... I have always written on moral problems of a humanist kind, not of a religious kind.'
- Contents:
- The Art of the Dramatist 17
- Two Interviews
- Writer as Gangster 37
- The Devils 57
- About the Theatre
- Writing for Actors 63
- A Conversation 70
- The Purpose of Theatre 77
- From a Notebook (1) 78
- The Writers' Theatre 85
- Statement for a Play 91
- From a Notebook (2) 94
- At Ease in a Bright Red Tie 100
- Criticism
- George Bernard Shaw 109
- Half Time at the Royal Court 112
- A New English Theatre 116
- Inside the Asylum 121
- One and One Make One 125
- A Good Laugh 131
- The Kitchen 137
- Luther 142
- Some Notes on Acting 147
- The Popular Theatre 152
- The Cherry Orchard 158
- Brecht in English 164.
- Notes:
- Series statement from cover.
- Includes bibliographical references (page 170).
- ISBN:
- 1840020520
- OCLC:
- 42774764
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