Arnold Wesker (1932–2016)
Auteur de The Wesker Trilogy
A propos de l'auteur
Arnold Wesker grew up in London's Stepney, and after time at the London School of Film Technique and in the Royal Air Force, worked at a number of jobs---carpenter's mate, farm laborer, pastry chef, among others---until Chicken Soup with Barley was performed on an Arts Council grant in 1958. afficher plus Transferred from a theater in Coventry to the Royal Court, it was joined in repertory there by Roots in 1959 and I'm Talking about Jerusalem in 1960. The realistic trilogy centered on the Kahn family and their connections, in London and Norfolk: old Communists, arts-and-crafts idealists, torpid farm workers, young radicals---nothing less than "the working class today."A different sort of play occupied Wesker just before and after the trilogy---the panoramic description of the ordinary activities of a large group of characters. The Kitchen (1962) followed the rhythms of calm and crisis in a large restaurant; Chips with Everything (1962) dealt with the life of conscripts in an air force training camp. Critic Kenneth Tynan and others welcomed Wesker's microcosms as revelations of the nature of authority and work, and the possibility of collective social action. But Chips, produced in London and New York, was Wesker's last major success. After it, he withdrew temporarily from writing to direct Centre 42, an ambitious worker arts project, the failure of which is memorialized in Their Very Own and Golden City (1966), the chronicle of an idealistic city planner's destructive compromises. Wesker's alienation from the radical politics of the 1970s severed his connection with the British left and threatened his relation with the British theater. (Many of his later plays have had their debut abroad, in Sweden and in the United States.) Since The Four Seasons (1965), about the growing apart of a couple, Wesker's focus has been personal. The Merchant (1976) retells the story of Shylock; Caritas (1981) ends with the martyrdom of a nun; The Old Ones (1972) are brothers confronting the coming of death. The change in Wesker's drama has encouraged readers to return to the early plays and recognize that they are less about collective action than its human difficulties. "I would like to think," the playwright explains, "that my plays . . . have a higher proportion of poetry than journalism." (Bowker Author Biography) afficher moins
Crédit image:
Monire Childs
Séries
Œuvres de Arnold Wesker
Penguin Plays: Epitaph for George Dillon, The Kitchen, The Hamlet of Stepney Green (1960) 11 exemplaires
Methuen Book Of Sixties Drama: Roots , Sergeant Musgrave's Dance , Early Morning , LooT , The Ruling Class… (2001) 8 exemplaires
Chips with Everything / The Friends / The Old Ones / Love Letters on Blue Paper (1980) 7 exemplaires
Three Plays: Five Finger Exercise / The Kitchen / The Hamlet of Stepney Green (1968) — Auteur — 4 exemplaires
Três peças para uma mulher 3 exemplaires
La cuina 3 exemplaires
Yardsale 2 exemplaires
Gli amici 2 exemplaires
La cucina ; Patatine di contorno 2 exemplaires
The Methuen Drama Book of Plays from the Sixties: Roots; Serjeant Musgrave's Dance; Loot; Early Morning; The Ruling… (2008) 2 exemplaires
Die Trilogie 1 exemplaire
Des frites, des frites, des frites 1 exemplaire
The New English Dramatists 7 1 exemplaire
Primavera Selvagem 1 exemplaire
Οι τέσσερις εποχές 1 exemplaire
Lady Othello and Other Plays Volume 6 1 exemplaire
Chips With Everything (Playbill) [Vol 1 No 1] 1 exemplaire
One-Woman Plays Volume 5 1 exemplaire
Shylock and Other Plays Volume 1 exemplaire
Kärleksbrev på blått papper 1 exemplaire
Le quattro stagioni. Una città dorata tutta per loro 1 exemplaire
Whatever Happened to Betty Lemon? 1 exemplaire
Wesker Plays (Penguin plays & screenplays) 1 exemplaire
Quattro ritratti di madri. Monologhi per attrici 1 exemplaire
Stücke 1 exemplaire
Wesker Plays: 2: Annie Wobbler; Yardsale; Four Portraits of Mothers; Betty Lemon?; The Mistress; Letter to a Daughter… (2001) 1 exemplaire
Oeuvres associées
New English Dramatists 2 — Contributeur — 14 exemplaires
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Date de naissance
- 1932-05-24
- Date de décès
- 2016-04-12
- Sexe
- male
- Nationalité
- England
UK - Lieu de naissance
- Stepney, London, England, UK
- Lieu du décès
- Brighton, Sussex, England, UK
- Professions
- playwright
- Prix et distinctions
- Knight Bachelor (2006)
Membres
Critiques
SOPA DE POLLASTRE AMB ORDI par Arnold Wesker
H1.31.4
This play revolves around a young couple who leave London to make it on their own in the country just after WWII. Without the amenities of life, they are attempting to build a home and a family along a new creed, one that appears to be wrapped around some odd combination of socialism and individualism. It follows the family for a decade, even though the play itself is not particularly long, and that does lead to some limitations in character and plot development, as well as throwing in characters that really don't move the story along, but in general, it flows well and is an interesting work with a somewhat ambiguous ending (that is not meant as a complaint).… (plus d'informations)
I like this play far more than I thought I would. I'm not big on social realism, but Beatie Bryant's struggle to articulate her desire for a more fulfilling life is actually very affecting.
Listes
Vous aimerez peut-être aussi
Auteurs associés
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 92
- Aussi par
- 3
- Membres
- 622
- Popularité
- #40,476
- Évaluation
- 3.8
- Critiques
- 7
- ISBN
- 112
- Langues
- 9