TRABAJO 1

TIME IN:

Look Back in Anger – A Play in Three Acts – John Osborne

Waiting for Godot – A tragicomedy in two acts – Samual Beckett

The Kitchen – A play in two parts with an interlude – Arnold Wesker

26 october

Arwen van der Plas

arwen.vanderplas@student.uva.nl

Time

This assignment contains a comparison of the use of time in John Osborne’s ‘Look Back in Anger a Play in Three Acts’, Arnold Wesker’s ‘The Kitchen a play in two parts with an interlude’ and Samuel Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot a tragicomedy in two acts’. This work is divided in three parts. I will first look at the time, the era of the first productions. Secondly at the time that the play contains. And ultimately at how the characters live this time.

context of the plays

The biggest similarity concerning time between the three plays is the era in which they are written. All the plays are written in the period after the second world war. All the first performances where after the second world war and before 1960.

You can’t look at the play like it’s written in a vacuum. The context in which it is written plays a vital role in every aspect of the plays. The present in these plays is the post-war era. The whole play is about people handling and living in this era, with it’s own particular Zeitgeist. Although the themes and actions in these plays are very different, the context in which they are written is the same. The fact that there had been two world-wars, one very recently, is visible in the plays. In The Kitchen, Wesker refers to the wars mainly trough the background of the characters. The war and the whole era has formed them to who they are now and how they look against the world. He describes them at the beginning of the play: Frank, Second Chef, Poultry: A prisoner of war for four years.[1] Peter, Boiled fish (…) His parents are killed in the war.[2] So for these characters the war has played a huge role in their lives and has probably left a big trace. In Look Back in Anger you see the Zeitgeist expressed by the main character Jimmy. He can’t be happy with the way things are in his era. He is an ‘angry young man’. A concept that was introduced with this play. For example JIMMY: (…) I suppose people of our generation aren’t able to die for good causes any longer. We had all that done for us, in the thirties and the forties, when we were still kids. (In his familiar, semi-serious mood.) There aren’t good, brave causes left.(…)[3] The third play Waiting for Godot is written in an absurd style, significant for Beckett and this era. Because, what can be more absurd than the two world-wars? A reference to the war is for example: VLADIMIR: (…) to all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late! Let us represent worthily for once the foul brood to which a cruel fate consigned us! (…)[4]

the stretch of time

The time is stretched differently over each play. Waiting for Godot starts at evening and end the night after it. The play is told chronologically but there are gaps. You could say that the first gap is the first act. Because instead of the three acts that Look Back in Anger has, has Waiting for Godot only two acts. In traditional theatre the first act (of three) is used to introduce the characters and the situation. This act is missing so we have no knowledge of what happened before and who the main characters are. And a lot of information stays unknown for us during the play. For example do we never get to know were they met Godot and what he can do for them. There is an time ellipse between the first and the second act. The first act end at night, the second act starts the evening after this day. Wesker also wrote his play in two acts. He puts an interlude between them. I think this play is more similar to traditional theatre than Becketts. This because there isn’t a first act missing. The first act in the kitchen does describe the situation and the characters. The kitchen starts in the early morning and character after character enters the stage to start ‘working’. The rest of the plot is only divided differently. I think you could even count the interlude as an second act (which would make the total three).

Like I said before Osborne his play is divided in three acts. A big difference between this play and the others is the time this plays streches. In the other two plays the period is rather short, respectively one and two days. Look Back in Anger stretches a few months. It starts at an Sunday evening in April and ends in the Autumn. This gives the author a certain freedom to let situations and person develop. So can Alison be pregnant, move and loose her unborn child after a few months. The disadvantage is that he has to let the public now, suggest or tell, what happens in this time. So at different points the characters refer to those months. ALISON: (…) How many times in these past few months I’ve thought of the evenings we used to spend here in this room[5]. (…)HELENA: At least, I still believe in right and wrong! Hot even the months in this madhouse have stopped me doing that.[6] The characters in the other two plays don’t get time to develop.

the characters and time

There is an enormous contrast between The Kitchen and Waiting for Godot in how the characters pass their time. The characters in The Kitchen almost don’t have time to sit or relax. They are always busy. [The waitresses begin to enter, shouting their orders at the required station. They take plates from hot plate, cradle them in their arms and order. They appear in greater numbers as the service swings into motion. Queues form in front of first one cook then another] [7] Vladimir and Estragon have all the time of the world, waiting for Godot and don’t now how to pass their time. ESTRAGON: What do we do now? VLADIMIR: While waiting. ESTRAGON: While waiting. Silence.[8]

In Osborne’s play you get the impression that the days are long and boring. Nothing really happens. JIMMY: God how I hate Sundays! It’s always so depressing, always the same. We never seem to get any further do we? Always the same ritual. Reading the papers, drinking tea, ironing. A few more hours, and another week gone. Our youth is slipping away. Do you now that?[9] These Sundays are passing by similar as the days from Estragon and Vladimir and the Kitchen staff. All the days are the same, there is some sort of ritual in them.