Lecturer: Giles Ramsay
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Location: Letcombe Regis Village Hall, OX12 9LJ
In this Study Day Giles will look at the revolution in theatre that took place in the late C19th and its legacy on the European theatrical styles of the early C20th. He will examine the impact of the First World War and the Great Depression on the theatre and the extraordinary divide that emerged between the drawing-room dramas of Noel Coward and Terrence Rattigan in London’s West End and the work of Lillian Bayliss, south of the river, at The Old Vic.
Whilst Noel Coward and Terrence Rattigan had dominated the pre-war theatre scene by the 1950’s they had begun to fall out of favour with the British public. A revolution was taking place in the arts and new voices were beginning to be heard such as John Osborne and Harold Pinter. Giles will examine the stark contrast between pre- and post-war British theatre and how we, in the C21st, can now reassess which playwrights really stood the test of time.
