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Looking Back - Playwrights at the Royal Court
Edited by Harriet Devine
Faber and Faber Paperback - £14.99
334 Pages
Dateline: 13th December, 2006
Sadly, George Devine, who almost single-handedly shaped the early life
of the Royal Court to make it what it is today, is no longer with us.
Faber and Faber have asked his daughter Harriet to interview the key
living Royal Court playwrights of the last half-century as a tribute
to her father and the theatre's exciting place in London theatre since
1956. The list is a impressive with the likes of Hare, Hampton and Edgar
rubbing shoulders with McPherson, Bean and Prebble.
Harriet Devine should be well qualified, having practically lived in
the theatre as a child, knowing all of the early movers and shakers,
putting in a stint as literary manager and, as a bonus, being an academic
and author specialising in literature though from a much earlier period.
The interviews are set out alphabetically by writer, starting with
John Arden and running through to Nicholas Wright, with fore and afterwords
from the Court's current Artistic Director Ian Rickson and Literary
Manager Graham Whybrow; and all follow a similar pattern.
Miss Devine gives her subjects space to talk and each interview covers
eight to a dozen pages during which you learn about influences, the
writing process and of course, their relationship with the Royal Court.
One of the joys of this book is that the editor/interviewer is often
able to interject with her father's view or opinion on a subject. Another
is the opportunity to discover a throwaway line which illuminates a
writer or makes a telling point.
For example, to know that Irish playwright and novelist Sebastian Barry
thinks that Anton Chekhov was "a very Irish playwright" says
so much about both writers.
By the end of the book, the two primary subjects that have been explored
in detail are the nature of writing and the distinguishing characteristics
of the Royal Court.
By and large, there are two different ways in which these playwrights
go about creating their work. There is what might be called the David
Storey method which is to sit there and almost blindly spew out words
that at the end of the process turn out to be perfectly formed, often
wonderful plays. At the other end of the scale, are those like Timberlake
Wertenbaker who go through numerous drafts, often helped by their directors
before arriving at a satisfactory point.
Perhaps Arnold Wesker best catches the purpose of the Royal Court and
the types of plays that it puts on when he says that the overriding
necessity is passion. Others debate whether politics or a need to be
disturbing or oppositional, in the nicest possible sense might explain
why this theatre and its plays have been so successful.
Ultimately, Looking Back is a very diffuse book that lacks any
kind of constant impetus because it is ordered alphabetically. This
means that the thoughts of a debutant playwright in his or her twenties
might be sandwiched between those of a veteran of the 1950s and one
of Max Stafford Clark's 1980s babes. This really prevents the author
from reaching any conclusions other than briefly in her introduction
and that makes this book something of a missed opportunity. However,
it is a good read that should be of value to anybody who might wish
to become a playwright or a better playwright or to those are interested
in the vocation of writing or this unique theatre.
The last words of Looking Back from Graham Whybrow capture the
ethos better than any others. He believes that the Royal Court's dual
purpose is "the honourable task of discovering the defining plays
of our time, but also a producer's imperative to discover plays which
will keep the programme exciting and varied." Now that is a challenge
for incoming Artistic Director, Dominic Cooke.
Philip Fisher
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