Granville Barker and Galsworthy: Questions of Censorship

Abstract

The transient nature of theatrical activity is well illustrated in the chequered reception of the two British playwrights who, together with Bernard Shaw, established the terms for modem drama in England. In the first decades of the century both Harley Granville Barker and John Galsworthy ranked with Shaw - indeed Shaw's breakthrough to public acceptance was largely due to Granville Barker, the initiator and driving artistic force of the Court Theatre seasons between 1903 and 1907. Yet their plays remained almost completely unperformed from the 1930S to the mid 1970S, and even renewed interest over the last decade has not led to a general revaluation of their significance as dramatists. Although The Marrying of Anne Leete was staged by the RSC in 1975 and Waste in 1985, while the significance of his role as an early advocate of a National Theatre was acknowledged by mounting a showcase production of The Madras House in the Olivier Theatre in 1977, Granville Barker is still looked on almost exclusively as a Shakespearian scholar and director. Similarly Galsworthy's reputation continues to rest entirely on his novels , and though Strife was resurrected by the National Theatre in 1978 Justice was only given a West End revival on the coat tails of the televised Forsythe Saga.