University of Exeter Press
The Censorship of British Drama 1900-1968 Volume 4
The Sixties
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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.
Russell Jackson
Theatre Notebook
. . . .we will lament the abolition of censorship insofar as it has robbed us of another volume.
Anne Etienne, University College Cork
Studies in Theatre and Performance
'It’s a brilliant manuscript, forensic and fascinating, rich with detail and countless examples of the hilarious and bewildering attitudes of the later censorship, but with also Nicholson’s characteristic fair-mindedness which treats the Lord Chamberlain and his comptrollers with respect for the difficult job they had to do and the nuanced way in which they did it. It’s a great conclusion to a vital series.'
Dan Rebellato, Royal Holloway University of London
Acknowledgements
Timeline: The Political and Cultural Calender
Introduction: Galahad and Mordred
1. The Inflamed Appendix (1960-1961)
2. No Laughing Matter (1961-1962)
3. Pleasuring the Lord Chamberlain (1963)
4. Some S. I will not Eat (1964)
5. Blows for Freedom (1965)
6. Going Wild (1965-1966)
7. Getting Tough (1966)
8. An Affront to Constitutional Principles (1967)
9. Let the Sunshine In (1968)
10. Afterwords (1968-1971)
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
