Publication date:
29 July 2015Publisher
University of Exeter PressDimensions:
234x156mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9780859898461
Winner of the Society for Theatre Research Book Prize – 2016
This is the final volume in a new paperback edition of Steve Nicholson’s definitive four-volume survey of British theatre censorship from 1900-1968, based on previously undocumented material, covering the period 1960-1968. This brings to its conclusion the first comprehensive research on the Lord Chamberlain's Correspondence Archives for the 20th century. The 1960s was a significant decade in social and political spheres in Britain, especially in the theatre. As certainties shifted and social divisions widened, a new generation of theatre makers arrived, ready to sweep away yesterday’s conventions and challenge the establishment. Analysis exposes the political and cultural implications of a powerful elite exerting pressure in an attempt to preserve the veneer of a polite, unquestioning society.
This new edition includes a contextualising timeline for those readers who are unfamiliar with the period, and a new preface.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.47788/TGOJ9339
Nicholson’s skillful deployment of meticulous archival research is combined with an effective sense of the overall picture of theatre and performance in the 1960s and concludes with a persuasive caution against complacency about the situation after the end of pre-censorship.