Face to face:
John Osborne
and
Arnold Wesker
John Osborne (1929-1994) and Arnold Wesker (1932- ) not only share the birhtplace, England, also the literary style what emerged in the late 1950’s, the authors like they, were called: “Angry Young Men” or “Kitchen-sink writer”. These romantic authors had in common that they had lived in times of wars, unbalances, general malaise, in which happiness didn’t exist. They started a new movement that became to be considered reactionary and that reflected their contemporary zeitgeist, that is to say the general set of ideas, beliefs, feelings, etc, which is typical of a particular period of time, in this case the years before the Second World War, the years of that and the following years, the worst years of the world’s history, from points of view with rage and frustration, that’s the reason why in the first place they are called “Angry Young Men”, how as an example we have “Look Back in Anger” by Osborne, among his most important plays, which express the hate of the author at the “complacency” postwar-Britain, and by Arnold “Chicken soup with Barley”, whose play show a dissatisfaction of the working classes with mass culture. And the reason why they are
also known as “Kitchen-sink writer” is that their personages who they created of the middle-class had often kitchen as place of scene, in that we emphasize more in Wesker as example and his play, “The Kitchen” is one.
The plays shared their manner to explain the life of characters, descriptions with qualities like vivid, raw authenticity, which portrayed monotony, mediocrity and in-justice of the life of main characters, who in the most cases were workers of middle class like the authors; in consequence their plays are considered biographies of themselves.
Both authors were very inspired by their own lives and personal interests as well as their social environment, as I have said after. Osborne was marked by the death of his father, which made worse the family’s financial problems, and his anxieties about not belonging to a particular social class, about the disempowerment of men and his sexuality are evident in most of his plays, that unhappy or incomplete life, suggested by protagonist who were egoist and who were depicted intimately.
On the other hand is Wesker, whose work has a didactic intention: communication, education, to show a tension between hope and disillusionment, and idealisation between socialism and caring…
Moreover the two authors helped to the develop of culture, trying to popularize the arts, for they share the event to be punished. John was arrested in 1961 for his participation in CNT demonstration; beginning from here he acquired a radical reputation. At the same year Arnold was sentenced to a month in prison together with Bertrand Russell and others for playing a leading role in the Committee 100’s demonstration against the use of nuclear weapons.
But obviously, not all are similarities there are differences between the authors.
Osborne is so important because he was the person who carried us this new movement, who began the new style, the new generation of authors and playwrights who became known as the “Angry Young Men”. This phenomenon generated a new awareness of the potential stimulus which theatre could be provided, in addition it had a real impact on the political relevance of theatre turning it in to a focus for political thinking at a time when any spirit of radicalism or even inquiry had largely been lost from the conventional political system.
It’s needed remind why also he is recognized like the principal agent of revitalizing the post-wa theatre, for the vigour, however unfairly deployed of the characters in the earlier plays, besides the sexual tendencies if his central characters. That aspect of these characters provided some facet with which diverse sections of his audiences were able to identify (“A Patriot for me”…). That reinforces Osborne’s ability to capture the spirit of his times.
And Wesker is so important because the aim in all plays is to go beyond a desire to record sympathetically everyday life of the working-classes, but he was far from being a documentarist. Sometimes verging on the didactic, these plays set out to diagnose the situation of the working-classes and offer a tentative programme for change. Because his constant reflections about themes through different styles (naturalism, symbolism, …) don’t define clearly periods in his writing, like a few authors. Also he is an outstanding author for the working-classes characters created by him who had a cadence of speech and rhythms of life, very different from other characters with the accents and attitudes of the upper-middle classes who dominated British theatre. And curiously for being the author who was the champion of kitchen-sink drama, because his early plays are predominantly set in a kitchen (“Roots”, “The Kitchen”, …) and the importance of food in most of his plays, it’s prepared and offered meticulously by characters to one another as a means of communication.
The best for me, it’s the important connexion between both authors, that isn’t the literary movement; it is that Osborne inspired Wesker to write his first play.
Bibliography:
-http://www.bbc.co.uk/Shropshire/culture/2002/04/john_osborne.shtml
-http://www.litencyc.com/speople.php?rec=true&Uid=3436
-http://www.litencyc.com/speople.php?rec=true&Uid=4663
-http://www.arnoldwesker.com
-http://contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth224
-http://en.wikipeida.org/wiki/Main_Page