The Angry British Theatre of Osborne and Wesker And The Theatre of Nouman Ashur (1955-1970)

Abstract

The second half of the 20th century witnessed drastic changes in both Britain and Egypt. In Britain conditions deteriorated to a great extent and everything was moving in a descending line, especially after the loss of most of the British colonies. Whereas in Egypt , one of the ex British colonies, everything was moving in an ascending line, especially after the military revolution in 1952. This thesis presents this picture through the analysis of the plays related to two representatives of the Angry British Theatre, Osborne and Wesker, as well as Ashur as a representative of the golden age of the Egyptian theatre. Osborne has been chosen due to his leadership of the movement. While Weker has been chosen for his being a socialist, something he shares with Ashur. In the analysis of their plays, they are represented within their contemporaries. The thesis is divided into an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion . In the introduction the social and political conditions in both Britain and Egypt has been discussed. Chapter one discusses the theme of class conflict in the plays . Chapter two concentrates on the treatment of characterization by the three dramatists. Finally chapter three compares and contrasts between their style and technique. The conclusion sums up the findings of the thesis, reinforcing the idea of the descending line in Osborne’s and Wesker’s plays, contrasted to the ascending line in Ashur’s plays. All the translations in the thesis are the researchers. The original texts translated from are inserted in an appendix at the end of the thesis