Word: littlewood
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...abhorrence of war and the inhumanities perpetrated on man by men, two plays, one German and one English, have recently gained acclaim in England. The Rabbit Race, by Martin Walser, and Oh What A Lovely War, produced by the London Theatre Workshop under the direction of Joan Littlewood, offer a contrast in the methods by which members of the cold war generation have tried to excite the conscience of their audience. Utilizing more or less conventional techniques, Walser presents an increasingly somber psychological drama; while Miss Littlewood employs several innovations in a satirical revue which bears a distinct Brechtian influence...
Miming, dancing, and singing the lovely old songs of The Great War, Miss Littlewood's actors lightly trace its course. National leaders disclaim any thought of war and then whip out their offensive plans--just in case. Allied generals hold each other in highest contempt, refusing to speak the other's language--until they receive medals. And the audience remembers that "Its a Long Way to Tipperary." But in the background a neon sign chronicles the facts: ALLIES DEFEATED--150,000 CASUALTIES, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT--30,000 DEAD IN THE TRENCHES...
Despite the originality of its staging and contrary to London reviews heralding it as the "best play of the year if not the decade," Miss Littlewood's production encourages tedium through its repetition. Erecting a super-structure reminiscent of The Threepenny Opera, complete with skeletal sets, narrator, and Kurt Weil orchestra, she and writer Charles Chilton have failed to provide a decent base, for their play is as black and white as the actors' costumes. After five minutes no one doubts that boobery is the best that the leaders can manage, that soldiers are great guys if only left alone...
...more men of Britain died in World War I than in World War II. "It is quite likely," wrote Critic Kenneth Tynan, "that when the annals of our theatre in the middle years of the 20th century come to be written, one name will lead all-that of Joan Littlewood. Others write plays, direct them, or act in them. Miss Littlewood alone 'makes theatre...
Unfortunately, however, Littlewood is not back for keeps. After discovering, producing, and directing A Taste of Honey, The Quare Fellow, The Hostage, etc., at her small Theatre Royal in London's lower-class East End, she quit because the commercial theaters of the West End kept drawing away her actors and, worse, forcing her to transfer her productions into longrun, big-time houses in order to survive financially. She is a purist who would like to work for a purist audience rather than for people "whose only thought is whether their tiaras are on straight." She believes in short...