John Mcgrath - Plays For England , livre ebook

Including plays from
THEATRE
COMPANY
ENGLAND and other works 1960–1992
SELECTED AND INTRODUCED BY NADINE HOLDSWORTH
Foreword by Michael Billington
Known for his politically charged subject matter and for
using popular cultural forms in non-traditional venues,
John McGrath emerged as a founding figure of the political
theatre movement in Britain during the 1970s.
This new collection makes available for the first time a
selection of McGrath’s groundbreaking plays spanning
four decades from the early 1960s through to the 1990s,
including work for the 7:84 England Theatre Company.
Nadine Holdsworth’s contextualising introduction provides a
detailed discussion of the plays, situating them in their social,
political and cultural contexts and within the wider output of
John McGrath and the 7:84 England Theatre Company. The
inclusion of photos, reviews, audience letters and programme
notes helps illuminate the production history of plays that not
only say something about the time in which they were written,
but remain topical and provocative today.
ISBN 0-85989-718-4
SELECTED AND INTRODUCED BY NADINE HOLDSWORTH
ISBN 0 85989 718 4
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER PRESS
9 780859 897181
www.exeterpress.co.uk
"
7% OF THE POPULATION OF THIS COUNTRY OWNS 84% OF THE WEALTH 7% OF THE POPULATION OF THIS COUN
HOLDSWORTHJOHN McGRATH –
PLAYS FOR ENGLAND
This is an edition of nine of McGrath’s plays both for the English 7:84
Theatre Company and outside it. It covers McGrath’s work spanning four
decades, from the 1960s through to the 1990s. The book has a substantial
contextualising introduction and commentary on the plays by Nadine
Holdsworth, one of the leading specialists in the work of John McGrath,
set alongside supporting documents such as programme notes, reviews
and letters.
Also published by University of Exeter Press: Freedom’s Pioneer: John
McGrath’s Work in Theatre, Film and Television edited by David Bradby
and Susanna Capon.
Nadine Holdsworth is Senior Lecturer in Theatre Studies at University of Warwick
and editor of John McGrath’s Naked Thoughts that Roam About: Reflections on
Theatre (Nick Hern Books, 2002).
Cover image: Johnny Mulcahy as Alf Chancer, Pauline Melville as Mrs Chancer
and Tim Munro as Joe in The Life and Times of Joe of England. Photo by Bob
van Dantzig, from the 7:84 England Archive, Cambridge University Library;
reproduced courtesy of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library.Exeter Performance Studies
Exeter Performance Studies aims to publish the best new scholarship from a
variety of sources, presenting established authors alongside innovative work
from new scholars. The list explores critically the relationship between theatre
and history, relating performance studies to broader political, social and cultural
contexts. It also includes titles which offer access to previously unavailable
material.
Series editors: Peter Thomson, Professor of Drama at the University of Exeter;
Graham Ley, Reader in Drama and Theory at the University of Exeter; Steve
Nicholson, Reader in Twentieth-Century Drama at the University of Sheffield.
From Mimesis to Interculturalism: Readings of Theatrical Theory Before and
After ‘Modernism’
Graham Ley (1999)
British Theatre and the Red Peril: The Portrayal of Communism 1917–1945
Steve Nicholson (1999)
On Actors and Acting
Peter Thomson (2000)
Grand-Guignol: The French Theatre of Horror
Richard J. Hand and Michael Wilson (2002)
The Censorship of British Drama 1900–1968: Volume One 1900–1932
Steve Nicholson (2003)
Freedom’s Pioneer: John McGrath’s Work in Theatre, Film and Television
edited by David Bradby and Susanna Capon (2005)olume Two 1933–1952
Steve Nicholson (2005, forthcoming)
Also published by University of Exeter Press
Extraordinary Actors: Essays on Popular Performers
Studies in honour of Peter Thomson
edited by Jane Milling and Martin Banham (2004)JOHN McGRATH –
PLAYS FOR ENGLAND
selected and introduced by
Nadine Holdsworthiv READER
First published in 2005 by
University of Exeter Press
Reed Hall, Streatham Drive
Exeter, Devon EX4 4QR
UK
www.exeterpress.co.uk
© The estate of John McGrath (texts), Michael Billington (foreword)
and Nadine Holdsworth (introduction) 2005
The rights of John McGrath and Nadine Holdsworth to be
identified as authors of this work have been asserted by them
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.
All rights whatsoever in these Plays are strictly reserved and
applications for permission for any use whatsoever, including
performance rights, must be made in advance, prior to any such
proposed use, to Casarotto Ramsay & Associates Ltd.,
60–66 Wardour Street, London, W1V 4ND, UK.
No performance may be given unless a licence has
first been obtained.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record of this book is available
from the British Library
ISBN 0 85989 718 4
Typeset in Sabon 10/12 pt by
Exe Valley Dataset Ltd, Exeter
Printed in Great Britain
by Antony Rowe Ltd, ChippenhamTITLE v
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements viii
Foreword by Michael Billington ix
Introduction
John McGrath’s early career: 1958–70 2
The Liverpool Everyman: 1971–72 6
7:84 Theatre Company: 1971–73 18
7:84 England Theatre Company: 1973–75 26
7:84 England Theatre Company in decline: 1976–79 40
Responding to Thatcherism: 1980–85 46
Watching for Dolphins in the 1990s 56
Notes 64
Bibliography and Further Reading 68
The Plays
They’ve Got Out (1961) 73
Unruly Elements/Plugged In (1971) 76
Angel of the Morning 77
Plugged in to History 92
They’re Knocking Down the Pie Shop 104
Trees in the Wind (1971) 114
Fish in the Sea (1975) 156
Lay Off (1975) 236
Rejoice! (1982) 284
Watching for Dolphins (1992) 325vi CONTENTSJOHN MCGRATH – LAYS FOR ENGLAND vii
Illustrations
Figure 1 Elizabeth MacLennan as Kay and Robert Hamilton as
Derek in Plugged in to History 8
Figure 2 Elizabeth MacLennan as Aurelia in Trees in the Wind 20
Figure 3 Victor Henry as Joe and Elizabeth MacLennan as
Aurelia in Trees in the Wind 22
Figure 4 Fish in the Sea Poster 28
Figure 5 The Maconochie family visit the youth club summer
camp in 7:84 England’s production of Fish in the Sea 29
Figure 6 John McGrath outside the Mickery Theatre, Amsterdam 32
Figure 7 Dennis Charles and Chrissie Cotterill surrounded by
consumer goods in Lay Off 33
Figure 8 The Four Strikes of 35
Figure 9 Yobbo Nowt programme 38
Figure 10 Trembling Giant 43
Figure 11 David Straun, Diane Adderley, Alfred Molina, Alan
Hulse and Dona Croll in Nightclass 48
Figure 12 Flyer image of Rejoice! 49
Figure 13 Briget Thornborrow, Nick Stringer and Angela Bruce
in Rejoice! 49
Figure 14 All the Fun of the Fair flyer 54
Figure 15 Watching for Dolphins flyer 57
Figure 16 Elizabeth MacLennan as Reynalda Ripley in Watching
for Dolphins 59
Figure 1 courtesy of Liverpool Everyman Archive, Liverpool John Moores
University; Figures 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 15 and 16 from the collection of Elizabeth
MacLennan; Figures 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and the cover image from the
7:84 England Archive, Cambridge University Library, courtesy of the Syndics of
Cambridge University Library.Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following for their help and support during the
process of bringing this collection to publication: Ros Merkin, Richard
Perkins and staff in the manuscripts department of Cambridge University
Library for helping me to access sources; staff at University of Exeter
Press, especially Simon Baker, Anna Henderson, Peter Thomson and
Rachel Rogers, for their enthusiasm and attention to detail, and Emily
Harding for her initial copy-typing of scripts.
I especially want to acknowledge the debt I owe to Elizabeth
MacLennan for asking me to take on this project following John’s death
in January 2002 and for all her encouragement, practical advice and
willingness to find and lend precious illustrative material during the
process of putting the book together.
As always, Geoff Willcocks has offered invaluable laughter, care and
support—thank you. FOREWORD ix
Foreword
by Michael Billington
Drama Critic of The Guardian
I can’t pretend to write objectively about John McGrath. I first met him
when I got to Oxford in 1958. I still felt like a raw schoolboy. John,
having done National Service, was not only older but seemed infinitely
better-read and more theatrically knowledgeable. Despite my naivety, he
cast me as a priest in a terrific production of Aristophanes’ The Birds
which he staged in Christchurch gardens in the summer of 1959. And
although he gave me one devastating note—‘you sound as if you’re
speaking with one lung’—I was dazzled by his charm, skill and ability to
ransack the time-honoured devices of music-hall, silent movies and
popular theatre.
Over the years I came to review John’s plays—including many of
those in the present volume—and to engage with him in friendly debate.
We had one particularly lively encounter at the Cheltenham Literary
Festival. From my implacably bourgeois, soft-left standpoint, I argued
for the need for writers to infiltrate big institutions like the National and
the RSC and even to penetrate the bastions of commercial theatre. John,
unsurprisingly, attacked what he elsewhere termed the ‘close-carpeted
blandness’ of the national companies and argued for the importance of
creating a radical, popular theatre capable of playing to new audiences.
Even though we disagreed, my admiration for John was constant. He
pursued his own vision, and through the creation of 7:84, in both its
English and Scottish manifestations, helped to change the theatrical
landscape. In that sense he belonged to the pioneering tradition of Joan
Littlewood and Theatre Workshop in its peripatetic 1940s heyday.
What has got overlooked, however, is John’s skill as a writer. Given
his vast output, his work is inevitably uneven. But, looking back over his
career, two things instantly strike me. One is his prophetic ability tox JOHN McGRATH—PLAYS FOR ENGLAND
write about the really big issues: the tentacular nature of the