In 1956 the English Stage Company reopened at the Royal Court Theatre under the artistic direction of George Devine. He believed that the writer was the fundamental creative
force within theatre and was committed to creating a venue where new writing could be promoted. In the first season he produced Arthur
Miller’s The Crucible and included new international
plays by Bertolt Brecht, Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Jean Paul Sartre and Marguerite Duras. Many of these works had previously been limited
to small scale productions at club theatres.
In 1956 John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger at the Royal Court heralded a new wave of writing for theatre. Other writers of this generation included
Trevor Griffiths, Edward Bond, and Arnold Wesker, and ten years later David Edgar, David Hare and Howard Brenton. The Royal Court gained a reputation for controversy and
for putting on
plays that defied the Lord Chamberlain’s censorship. The 1965 production of Edward Bond’s Saved was one of the last such production to be censored
by the Lord Chamberlain and became infamous for the scene in which a baby is stoned in its pram.
In the 1980s Max Stafford Clark took over as director and was responsible for a wave of political new writing, much of it a backlash to the Thatcher years. Caryl Churchills’s
Serious Money was a satirical attack on the financial corruption and dealings within the City. Howard Brenton's A Short Sharp Shock was an attack on
Thatcherism. Other writing of that period included Trevor Griffiths’ Oi for England, and Road by Jim Cartwright. The Court also supported the work
of new Black and Asian Playwrights like Michael Abbensetts, Mustapha Matura, Hanif Kureishi and later Jacqueline Rudet.
Many Royal Court young writers have later won success in the West End. More recent West End transfers to come from the Royal Court include:
Conor McPherson's The Weir, Kevin Elyot's My Night With Reg and Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden.
Whilst the Court did not set out to create a movement of angry young writers the phrase ‘In Yer Face Theatre’ has been
applied to many of the young writers who were produced by the Royal Court in the 1990s. Recent writers include: Mark Ravenhill, Rebecca Prichard,
Judy Upton, Meredith Oakes, Sarah
Kane, Anthony Neilson, Jez Butterworth, Martin McDonagh, Ayub Khan-Din, Tamantha Hammerschlag, Jess Walters and Simon Stephens.
Introduction
The Royal Shakespeare Company
