John Arden: The Promise Unfulfilled

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Arden's work could generally be described as "civic" in nature; his themes are for the most part political, and his protagonists are frequently involved with the machinations of government. His plays develop characters that represent a wide spectrum of society, and his loosely linked scenes encompass a panorama that is sometimes quite vast. The preoccupation with political themes is linked with another quality—almost enigmatic. Arden's work is typified by a certain neutral quality on the author's part; he does not espouse causes nor attempt pat answers to the questions his drama prompts. His characters seem to exist apart from the author's judgement, helpless cogs in a political machine—a machine which the author clearly sees as a social necessity, but unfortunately one which molds individual lives while remaining beyond individual control. One observes time and again in Arden's work an anarchistic individual who is crushed by the society around him. The point would seem to be that, invariably, there cannot be social evolution without the very mixed blessings of strong government. In Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, a rebel protagonist is first betrayed and then destroyed, and the forces of order triumph in the inevitable, though far from desirable, conclusion. This scenario forms the basis for a number of Arden's plays; indeed, in certain respects, he appears to be writing the same play time and again. It is equally true that Arden frequently seems to be observing his characters in the clear and cold light of intellectual detachment. It is as if it were the business of the artist merely to present, not to preach or judge; the world is too complex. Each point of view in the moral spectrum of an Arden play is painstakingly delineated and, at the resolution, the scale of right versus wrong seems balanced between opposing views. Of course, such scope demands a text that leans to length rather than brevity, and surely Arden's work could never be characterized as laconic. The tendency to what could be termed prolix indeterminateness might prove less enervating if Arden's bleak and often dour sensibility were varied with a bit of laughter, but comic counterpoint, when it occurs, appears to be mustered through a supreme effort of the will. For an author who has written a fair number of plays which he describes as comedies, John Arden is agonizingly humorless. (pp. 48-9)

Arden's dramas make it clear that, as far as the playwright is concerned, choices are not easily made, and answers are as ephemeral as the breath that utters them. Ambivalence is the only constant. The playwright obviously sees these qualities in Brecht, and has frequently acknowledged his admiration for the German dramatist. Certainly Arden's use of verse and song in his drama, and his belief in theatre as an institution dedicated to reaching and awakening social consciousness, remind one of Brecht. (p. 49)

Even though Arden had, by the early 1960's, a covey of loyal and distinguished followers (Sean O'Casey was to call Serjeant Musgrave's Dance "far and away the finest play of the present day"), yet he was dismayed. Coterie approval stuck in his craw, the approval he received from the critics was meager, and popular approval totally nonexistent. The sting of public rejection may in part have prompted an active movement toward a new focal point for Arden's dramaturgy, and certainly he found a kind of popular acceptance unparallelled in his career with the ingenuous plays written specifically for what he calls "community theatre." The plays are of interest primarily because they are collaborations with his wife, Margaretta D'Arcy, and while they began as simple diversions without pretense to professionalism, in time the distinction between the "community" and "professional" work disappeared. (p. 50)

To a certain extent [Armstrong's Last Goodnight] can be considered an amalgam of all Arden's major ideas. Political expediency, order and anarchy, conflicting life-styles, and betrayal are all concepts which the author dealt with in earlier plays; in the story of Johnny Armstrong, the playwright finds a fable in which he can incorporate all these themes. (p. 51)

Although motivation is at times problematic, certainly Arden's central thematic concern is not difficult to detect. He makes it quite clear that a political life is one of corruption; it is a life without honor, a life of betrayal….

Armstrong utilizes Arden's standard themes, yet one gets the impression that, for all his obsession, the author has not broken through the surface of his material to discover its subjective, emotional core. For all the lustiness and vitality, one gets the impression that within the body of an Arden play there is no heart; the mind is doing the pumping. (p. 52)

Almost everything Arden maintained as a dramatist-thinker was expressed in this play, and the fact that it fared no better than it did must have been a severe blow, possibly enough to prompt the redirection of the author's artistic career, a redirection that was to culminate in the 1968 production of The Hero Rises Up—a play that will no doubt prove to be a watershed in Arden's development.

The fact that The Hero Rises Up is a collaborative effort on a large scale marks it as a true curiosity….

The Hero Rises Up divides its focus between the career of Admiral Nelson and the workings of the society that worshiped him as a hero. Nelson's exploits are portrayed, both military and sexual, revealing the man as a bloodthirsty egomaniac. Although we see that he is regarded by England's populace as a national hero, the relationship between the man and the society which produced him is never satisfactorily explored. (p. 53)

Interestingly, the most significant feature of the play is the bluntness with which it makes its points. This bluntness is implicit in the characterization of Nelson: he is brave, vain and cruel. The society that supports him admires his bravery, mirrors his vanity, and ignores his cruelty. The hypocrisy of both the man and his society is underscored time and again by the authors, and unlike past efforts on Arden's part, the conclusion of this play leaves very little in suspense. The blunt statement of an obvious message, the over-extended scenes with their underdeveloped ideas, and the anticlimactic finale make the play a more blatant sociopolitical propaganda piece than any of Arden's other works….

Although the conceptual base of this play remains what might be termed "traditional" Arden, the manner in which the concept is stated has changed considerably. We do not see the hovering neutrality of the early plays, but find instead a vigorous directness in which a blatantly stated political point is developed through the utilization of superficial stylistic elements from Brecht's Epic Theatre—elements appropriated on a scale unparallelled in Arden's earlier works. Songs and placards giving plot information proliferate, as do expository speeches directed to the audience. One must bear in mind that at one point in his career Arden noted that his drama lacked what in Brecht amounted to the "strength of didactic dialectics." It appears Arden was attempting to cultivate this strength in The Hero Rises Up and had determined that the best way to put across his message was by utilizing Brecht's eminently successful theatrical techniques. (p. 55)

[If] one judges from this and other collaborations, it appears likely that Miss D'Arcy has succeeded in channeling Arden's nonspecific liberal tendencies into drama rooted in radical dogma. One might conclude that she has blasted Arden from his intellectual fence-sitting, and together, hands linked and banners unfurled, the two have set out to produce activist drama which will appeal to both chic and popular audiences….

Unfortunately, collaboration has not proven to be of special benefit to Arden; the balance and ambiguity are gone from his work, and stylistic embellishment cannot relieve the tedium of blunt—if not tersely stated—conclusions. His career thus far has not fulfilled its initial promise. In the 1970's John Arden is writing what one critic has termed "a pedant's idea of popular theatre." (p. 56)

Craig Clinton, "John Arden: The Promise Unfulfilled," in Modern Drama (copyright © 1978, University of Toronto, Graduate Centre for Study of Drama; with the permission of Modern Drama), Vol. XXI, No. 1, March, 1978, pp. 47-57.

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Violence in 'Serjeant Musgrave's Dance': A Study in Tragic Antitheses