Art and Politics: London Theatre Since the Fifties
Abstract
Art and Politics: London Theatre Since the Fifties* WARREN L. CHERNAIK , The single most significant development in the decade 1968 to 1978 was the rise of socialist theatre'. Christopher Bigsby's remark in Contemporary English Drama betrays a certain parochialism: a more striking phenomenon during these years, one would think, is the failure of socialist theatre to rise, like an ill-cooked souffle. Though, as Stages in the Revolution and New Theatre Voices of the Seventies both document, a substantial number of talented and ambitious playwrights, directors, and theatrical companies during these years sought to give socialist convictions practical dramatic form, nothing resembling a 'socialist theatre' has been created in London or now exists. The failure of left-wing theatre is perhaps symptomatic of the greater failure of British socialism during these years, the long retreat from the hopes and ideals of 1945. Whatever one may say about the current state of British society, the London theatre is in some ways flourishing, far more than at the time of 'The London Theatre in Crisis' (LONDON JOURNAL, 1, 1975). The Royal Shakespeare Company has played to full houses and regularly received good reviews, with Nicholas Nickleby the hit of London and New