National Representations, National Theatres: Aubrey Menen and the Experimental Theatre Company
Stadtler, FCJ
Date: 22 March 2017
Journal
Studies in Theatre and Performance
Publisher
Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Publisher DOI
Abstract
This article discusses the Indian-Irish playwright and critic Aubrey Menen’s involvement with London's theatre scene in the 1930s. Aubrey Menen became heavily involved in student drama activities while a philosophy student at University College London. He co-founded the London Student Players as well as the Experimental Theatre company, ...
This article discusses the Indian-Irish playwright and critic Aubrey Menen’s involvement with London's theatre scene in the 1930s. Aubrey Menen became heavily involved in student drama activities while a philosophy student at University College London. He co-founded the London Student Players as well as the Experimental Theatre company, a group on London's theatre fringe which sought to produce plays that were of the moment, politically current,
pushing the boundaries of theatrical staging in alternative performance spaces. At the age of 21, Menen also became the dramatic critic for the monthly magazine, The Bookman. Menen used his column to offer a sharp critical dissection of the state of British theatre and to lay out a plan for a theatre that can call itself truly 'national' and how this might be achieved financially, artistically and practically. This essay highlights the wider context of Menen’s own pronouncements in The Bookman, exploring these as part of his engagement with London's alternative theatre scene in the 1930s. It argues that Menen’s ideas were a timely intervention into crucial debates how the nation should be represented in drama and how drama could reach an audience beyond the middle classes, preoccupations that are still hotly
debated today.
English
Collections of Former Colleges
Item views 0
Full item downloads 0
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Theatre at Work: The Characteristics, Efficacy and Impact of Participatory Actor-Based Applied Theatre in the Workplace
Feltham, Richard Mark (University of Exeter Drama, 6 January 2012)This thesis examines the use of actor-based Applied Theatre methods within the workplace. Typically such methods are employed for behavioural skills training with the intention of enabling staff to effectively perform ... -
Theatre of Testimony: A Practice-Led Investigation into the Role of Staging Testimony in Contemporary Theatre
Enright, Helena (University of Exeter Drama, 4 January 2011)The use of personal testimony in theatre is a central component to the practice of Verbatim Theatre. Verbatim Theatre is a form of documentary theatre and is enjoying an increased popularity on world stages in recent ... -
Variety theatre programme: Metropolitan Theatre, London, week commencing 18 March 1912 / Metropolitan Bioscope
Metropolitan Theatre (10 November 2009)