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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 January 2009
In theatrical parlance, ‘political’ is often taken to be synonymous with ‘left-wing’, and research into political theatre movements of the first half of this century has perpetuated the assumption that the right has generally avoided taking politics as subject matter. This article, the first of two about British political theatre in the 1920s, concentrates on plays about Communism and the Soviet Union during the decade following the Russian Revolution, and offers some contrasting conclusions. Steve Nicholson, Lecturer in Drama at the Workshop Theatre of the University of Leeds, argues that, whether such plays shaped or merely reflected conventional views, they were used by the establishment for the most blatant and explicit propaganda, at a time when it felt itself under threat from the Left. The article has been researched largely through unpublished manuscripts in the Lord Chamberlain's collection of plays, housed in the British Library, and derives from a broader study of the portrayal of Communism in the British theatre from 1917 to 1945.
1. See, for example, reviews in The Nation, 23 Oct. 1920, p. 129–130, and The Spectator, 16 Oct. 1920, p. 500; also the recollections of the producer, Lion, Leon M., in his autobiography, The Surprise of My Life, (London, 1948), p. 90Google Scholar.
2. I know of no comprehensive study of anti-Soviet propaganda, but there are useful references in Arnot, R. Page, The Impact of the Russian Revolution in Britain, (London, 1967)Google Scholar, and Knightley, Philip, The First Casualty (London, 1975)Google Scholar.
3. See, for example, Mowat, Charles Loch, Britain between the Wars: 1918–1940 (London, 1955)Google Scholar.
4. Unpublished manuscript by R. Grahame, Bolshevik Peril, p. 5, in Lord Chamberlain's Collection.
5. Unpublished manuscript by Clemence Dane, The Terror, p. 12, in Lord Chamberlain's Collection.
6. Unpublished manuscript of Red Nights of the Tcheka, anonymously translated from the French of André de Lorde and Henri Bauche, p. 8–9, in Lord Chamberlain's Collection.
7. Ibid., p. 15. The speech has been crossed out by the Censor.
8. The Observer, 12 Nov. 1922, p. 11.
9. The Illustrated London News, 18 Nov. 1922, p. 824.
10. Unpublished manuscript of Austin Page, The Beating on the Door, Act III, p. 22, in Lord Chamberlain's Collection.
11. Ibid., p. 23–4.
12. The Observer, 12 Nov. 1922, p. 11.
13. From an anonymous and unpublished translation of Lenin by Waclaw Grubinski, in the archives of the Polish Library in London, p. 28. This may or may not be the exact text used in the London performance.
14. Ibid., p. 27.
15. Kirchon, V. M. and Ouspensky, A. V., Red Rust, translated by Vernon, F. and Vernon, V. (New York, 1930), p. 90Google Scholar.
16. The Times, 1 Mar. 1929, p. 14.
17. Red Rust, p. 80.
18. Ibid., p. 81–2.
19. As well as writing a number of books and plays, Griffith had worked as a drama critic for The Observer, The Manchester Guardian, and The Evening Standard.
20. Griffith, Hubert, Red Sunday (London, 1929), p. 77Google Scholar.
21. Ibid., p. 80–2.
22. Ibid., p. 87.
23. Ibid., p. 83–4.
24. Hubert Griffith, ‘Introduction’ to Red Sunday, p. xvi.
25. Swinnerton, Frank, The Nation, 23 10 1920, p. 129–30Google Scholar.
26. The Illustrated London News, 18 Nov. 1922, p. 824.
27. The Times, 23 April 1929, p. 14.
28. The Times, 28 June 1929, p. 14.