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Arnold Wesker
Sir Arnold Wesker FRSL (24 May 1932 – 12 April 2016) was an English dramatist. He was the author of 50 plays, four volumes of short stories, two volumes of essays, much journalism and a book on the subject, a children's book, some poetry, and other assorted writings. His plays have been translated into 20 languages, and performed worldwide.
Wesker was born in Stepney, London, in 1932, and grew up in Spitalfields, the son of Leah (née Cecile Leah Perlmutter), a cook, and Joseph Wesker, a tailor's machinist and active communist. The doctor in attendance at his birth was Samuel Sacks, the father of neurologist Oliver Sacks.
Wesker attended a Jewish infants' school in Whitechapel. His education was then fragmented during the Second World War. He was briefly evacuated to Ely, Cambridgeshire, before returning to London where he attended Dean Street School during the Blitz. He then returned to live with his parents who had moved to a council flat in Hackney, east London, where he attended Northwold Road School. He then attended Upton House Central School, Hackney, from 1943. This was a school where emphasis was placed on teaching office skills, including typing, to bright boys who had not been selected for grammar school places. He was then evacuated again to Llantrisant, South Wales.
He was accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but could not afford to take up his place there. Later, he served for two years in the Royal Air Force, and then went on to work as cook, furniture maker, and bookseller. After saving up enough money, he went to study at the London School of Film Technique, now known as the London Film School
His inspiration for the 1957 play The Kitchen, which was later made into a film, came when he was working at the Bell Hotel in Norwich. It was while working here that he met his future wife Dusty.
Wesker's plays deal with such themes as self-discovery, love, confrontation of death, and political disillusion. Chicken Soup with Barley (1958) went out to the regions. Rather than opening in the West End, its premiere was seen at the Coventry Theatre, a locale which typified Wesker's political views as an 'angry young man'.
His play Roots (1959) was a kitchen sink drama about a girl, Beatie Bryant, who returns after three years of stay in London to her farming family home in Norfolk and struggles to voice herself. Critics commended the "emotional authenticity" brought out in the play. Roots, The Kitchen, and Their Very Own and Golden City were staged by the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre under the management of George Devine and later William Gaskill.
Wesker joined with enthusiasm the Royal Court group on the Aldermaston March in 1959. Another of the Royal Court contingent, Lindsay Anderson, made a short documentary film (March to Aldermaston) about the event. He was an active member of the Committee of 100 and, with other prominent members, was jailed in 1961 for his part in its campaign of mass nonviolent resistance to nuclear weapons.
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Arnold Wesker
Sir Arnold Wesker FRSL (24 May 1932 – 12 April 2016) was an English dramatist. He was the author of 50 plays, four volumes of short stories, two volumes of essays, much journalism and a book on the subject, a children's book, some poetry, and other assorted writings. His plays have been translated into 20 languages, and performed worldwide.
Wesker was born in Stepney, London, in 1932, and grew up in Spitalfields, the son of Leah (née Cecile Leah Perlmutter), a cook, and Joseph Wesker, a tailor's machinist and active communist. The doctor in attendance at his birth was Samuel Sacks, the father of neurologist Oliver Sacks.
Wesker attended a Jewish infants' school in Whitechapel. His education was then fragmented during the Second World War. He was briefly evacuated to Ely, Cambridgeshire, before returning to London where he attended Dean Street School during the Blitz. He then returned to live with his parents who had moved to a council flat in Hackney, east London, where he attended Northwold Road School. He then attended Upton House Central School, Hackney, from 1943. This was a school where emphasis was placed on teaching office skills, including typing, to bright boys who had not been selected for grammar school places. He was then evacuated again to Llantrisant, South Wales.
He was accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but could not afford to take up his place there. Later, he served for two years in the Royal Air Force, and then went on to work as cook, furniture maker, and bookseller. After saving up enough money, he went to study at the London School of Film Technique, now known as the London Film School
His inspiration for the 1957 play The Kitchen, which was later made into a film, came when he was working at the Bell Hotel in Norwich. It was while working here that he met his future wife Dusty.
Wesker's plays deal with such themes as self-discovery, love, confrontation of death, and political disillusion. Chicken Soup with Barley (1958) went out to the regions. Rather than opening in the West End, its premiere was seen at the Coventry Theatre, a locale which typified Wesker's political views as an 'angry young man'.
His play Roots (1959) was a kitchen sink drama about a girl, Beatie Bryant, who returns after three years of stay in London to her farming family home in Norfolk and struggles to voice herself. Critics commended the "emotional authenticity" brought out in the play. Roots, The Kitchen, and Their Very Own and Golden City were staged by the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre under the management of George Devine and later William Gaskill.
Wesker joined with enthusiasm the Royal Court group on the Aldermaston March in 1959. Another of the Royal Court contingent, Lindsay Anderson, made a short documentary film (March to Aldermaston) about the event. He was an active member of the Committee of 100 and, with other prominent members, was jailed in 1961 for his part in its campaign of mass nonviolent resistance to nuclear weapons.