Holly's Research Day Assignment

Research Day Assignment: Bibliography and Source Materials

Holly Dayton

9/14/16

For my thesis, I intend to write a social, cultural, and economic history of performance on the West End stage during the First World War. I spent three weeks in England this summer doing extensive archival study: reading manuscripts from plays and musicals, reading newspaper reviews, looking at programs, and examining other topical articles from contemporary journals. I include the catalogue I have made of my research below in this document, as listing out each play and article would be unwieldy in this context. My working argument is that, through carefully studying the “fluffy” and “escapist” musicals and musical revues of this era - through reading their texts, examining reviews, and studying their pricing and marketing strategies - we can come to see this theatre as a natural continuation of a culture of prewar capitalism and consumerism, and not a radical departure and a debasement. For many on the home front, the years from 1914 to 1918 were still dominated by the notions of self-promotion and entrepreneurialism that had pervaded popular culture in the period leading up to the war. This argument goes against the notion (present in contemporary literature and in current literature) that theatre changed dramatically with the onset of the war to become more escapist and patriotic than it had been before. I will argue that the presence of war plays was a new addition to the theatrical landscape, but that the themes espoused in “escapist” theatre - self-promotion, entrepreneurialism, individualism - were present before the war and continued to be present throughout those years, and can illuminate the capitalist culture on the home front that continued to exist in spite of the war.

In order to make this argument, I need to start with a thorough lit review of theatre histories to examine their coverage of this era. Additionally, I need to do research on prewar cultural conditions and the state of the theatre, as well as the purchasing power of the average Londoner during the war. I would also like to do some limited research into the other entertainment offerings during the war era, such as the cinema. 

Primary Sources:

Catalogued here: https://goo.gl/zD4mw9. Nearly all were print, though some of the newspaper articles were in microfilm.

The advantage of reading the plays that were performed at the time is that I was able to access the substance of works that are often regarded in the literature as all equally “fluffy,” and read their characterizations and plots. The problems with using manuscripts from these plays is that I do not have direct access to how the audience understood the character dynamics and plot developments of the plays. I can start to access this obliquely, by looking at how long a play ran, how many performances it had, and whether it transferred to another theatre, but those are all insights that come from outside of the play itself.

The advantage of using contemporary theatrical reviews and articles is that I can track what informed theatre-goers thought of wartime performance. Did the educated/opinion-setting class of the day see this theatre as something new? Why did they not connect this theater with what came before? Can we interrogate their perception of their own theatre with the benefit of time and greater social/cultural context? It is important to acknowledge, though, in using these reviews that they only represent a certain, informed opinion about the performances of this time, and that the opinion of the uneducated theatergoer may have been quite different.

The advantage of using programs is to illustrate the logistical production choices being made in the mounting of these shows: how long some performances ran, how much each kind of ticket cost, when ticket prices changed and by how much (and for who), how the balance between matinee and evening performances was negotiated, how the number of performances per week was engineered. I want to use this under-researched data to begin to shed some light on the extensive strategic maneuvering done by contemporary producers to ensure these productions success. Though the public watchwords were “duty” and “sacrifice,” the theatrical producers of the day did everything they could to ensure their private success, and put on plays and musicals that reflected those sentiments. I will need to do thorough research in order to appropriately contextualize how cheap or expensive tickets were at that time.

The shareable primary source I would like everyone to read is from The Play Pictorial, no. 192, from vol. 32. 

The Play Pictorial is a print publication that featured one West End show a month, and usually contained a section of opening remarks by commentator B.W. Findon. Findon speaks as an informed and educated theatre-goer on the state of the theater at the time, and so often expresses a degree of classism in his comments (when critiquing the taste of the general public). His personal biases inform how he frames the state of theatrical affairs in February, 1918, and make his commentaries complex and illuminating sources. 

Secondary Sources:

Those I have already used:

Collins, L. J., Theatre At War, 1914-18. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. Print.

A far more thorough history of the theatre of the war than most, but it focuses primarily on the role of the spy play and the war play, rather than on the functions of the musical comedy. Useful for my lit review.

Fussell, Paul, The Great War and Modern Memory. Oxford Univ. Press paperback ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1977. Print.

The quintessential book one must read before writing a cultural history about Britain. It does not include much material about the experience of the First World War while it was being lived in re the theatre, but still holds insights for how the war was experienced differently on the front and at home.

Hartnoll, Phyllis. The Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 3rd ed. London: Oxford U.P., 1967. Print.

A theatre history that does not give much space to the major players or productions from the First World War. Useful for my lit review.

Hynes, Samuel, A War Imagined: The First World War and English Culture. London: Bodley Head, 1990. Print.

Includes a good analysis of the performance of the First World War. However, his use of the theatre from this period is selective, and he uses certain examples to illustrate how the wartime culture waged a “War Against Moderism,” a “War Against Culture,” and a “War Against Dissent.” Useful for my lit review. 

Nicoll, Allardyce, British Drama: An Historical Survey From the Beginnings to the Present Time.Rev. ed. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1939. Print.

Theatrical history that pays very scant attention to the period of the First World War, as it did not yield much serious performance that has made its way into the canon. Useful for my lit review.

Platt, Len. Musical Comedy On the West End Stage, 1890-1939. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Print.

A good theatrical history, which traces specifically he development of the West End musical, the influence of Broadway on the West End, and the rise of the revue during the war. Selective in its examples, but useful all the same. Useful for my lit review.

Robb, George. British Culture and the First World War. Houndmills [England]: Palgrave, 2002. Print.

Includes good coverage of the popular theatre of the war, but does not focus on home front performance (including more information about performance at the front). Robb specifically notes the shift towards conservatism in the theatrical work of the time and of the influx of spy plays on the stage. Useful for my lit review.

Wearing, J. P., The London Stage, 1910-1919: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Second edition. Print. 

This resource is a fantastic encyclopedia of most of the plays and musicals mounted during these years in London. There are some texts that I found in the British Library that were not here, and some texts from here that I had difficulty finding in the British Library, but on the whole a wonderful reference resource with some helpful facts (run times, opening dates). 

Those I am looking into:

Rose, Jonathan. 1986. The Edwardian temperament, 1895-1919. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press.

Rose, Jonathan. 2010. The intellectual life of the British working classes. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press.

These works do a history of audience, as opposed to a history of the material audiences consume. Rose attempts to bring a voice to the intellectual life of the working class by using new sources of historical data: changing literacy rates, lending library subscriptions, library membership, and memoir accounts. Consulting Rose’s work and observing his methodology will be valuable for me as I embark on a project where I also have difficulty in telling the perspective of the audience.

Savage, Michael, and Andrew Miles. 1994. The remaking of the British working class, 1840-1940. London: Routledge.

As I am interested in how the average London theatergoer experienced the performances they went to see, I want to know more about the culture of the British working class at the time. What role did the theatre play in everyday life? What was the purchasing power of the average British worker?

Rappaport, Erika Diane, Sandra Trudgen Dawson, and Mark J. Crowley. 2015. Consuming behaviours: identity, politics and pleasure in twentieth-century Britain.

As my thesis seeks to explore the themes of consumerism and individualism in the theatre of this period, I wish to improve my knowledge about consumerist culture directly preceding the war.

Bloom, Clive. 1993. Literature and culture in modern Britain. London: Longman.

This work contains several essays on the consumption of popular culture (theatrical and literary) from the time of the First World War, and will be helpful as a reference for the kind of historical inquiry I wish to make.

Sheppard, F. H. W. 1998. London: a history. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

As my thesis is entirely centered in the city of London and has much to do with the city’s culture, I want to brush up on my knowledge of the demographics and wealth of the citizens at the time. Who were Londoners during the war? How much money did they make? What was the class composition?

Horrall, Andrew. 2001. Popular culture in London c. 1890-1918: the transformation of entertainment. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

I am interested to know why audiences from this time chose to go to the theater instead of another form of entertainment, so I wish to find more information on entertainment alternatives at this time, such as the cinema.

Beckett, I. F. W. 2006. Home front, 1914-1918: how Britain survived the Great War. Kew: National Archives.

This is another contemporary history of home front culture during the First World War, and will be useful for my lit review as well as in documenting the entertainment alternatives of the time.

Milling, Jane, Peter Thomson, and Joseph W. Donohue. 2004. The Cambridge history of British theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

This seminal theatrical history is an important text for me to reference when performing my historiography. I have not consulted it yet, but it will be an important presence in my lit review.