The Political Drama Of Howard Brenton

Abstract

Of all the new playwrights, Howard Brenton occuptes a distinguished position. His roots are firmly in the fringe. What made Brenton a so called fringe writer as he ironically identifies, was the poverty of means, i.e. very little money was available. Thirty shillings was the average budget for each play. Brenton began to associate himself with a group whose aims were very much for developing Fringe movement. They made a complete departure from traditional forms, and their target audience at least attempted to cross class boundaries. Working circumstances like these offered Brenton a complete exciting freedom of ideas and of methods of approach.

It was in 1968, that Brenton joined the Portable Theatre. He has brought the shock tactics of the fringe into mainstream theatres, so his plays written for the Portable Theatre aim to shock and disturb. Brenton does not accept the basis of society at all. He supports revolution rather than evolution. In a word, he revolutionized theatre. His plays do not respect hallowed social taboos on open discussion of sex, religion and the establishment.

On one hand it was the body of Brenton's work that was at once intensive and diversified that placed Brenton in the forefront of the new writings. On the other hand, it prevented him from being accepted by the establishment. Actually, the greatest difficulty that any researcher has to face is the rare of criticism. When the writer of the thesis was in London, struggling to find references or books about Brenton, there was an incident that she has often remembered. After a long time of search, she asked a Blackwell Librarian to check any references about Brenton. He raised his bushy eyebrows in surprise and answered: "Howard Brenton. Why