Audio Drama Modernism: The Missing Link between Descriptive Phonograph Sketches and Microphone Plays on the Radio (Palgrave Studies in Sound)

__Audio Drama and Modernism__ traces the development of political and modernist sound drama during the first 40 years of the 20th Century. It demonstrates how pioneers in the phonograph age made significant, innovative contributions to sound fiction before, during, and after the Great War. In stunning detail, Tim Crook examines prominent British modernist radio writers and auteurs, revealing how they negotiated their agitational contemporaneity against the forces of Institutional containment and dramatic censorship. The book tells the story of key figures such as Russell Hunting, who after being jailed for making ‘sound pornography’ in the USA, travelled to Britain to pioneer sound comedy and montage in the pre-Radio age; Reginald Berkeley who wrote the first full-length anti-war play for the BBC in 1925; and D.G. Bridson, Olive Shapley and Joan Littlewood who all struggled to give a Marxist voice to the working classes on British radio. Acknowledgements Contents 1: Introduction 2: Audio Drama and Modernism: Gordon Lea 1926, the First Manifesto The Seeds of Linking Phonograph Audio Play, Modernism and Radio Drama Audio Drama’s First Modernist Manifesto 3: Radio Drama and the Avant-Garde: Lance Sieveking 1934, the Second Manifesto Radio Drama, Modernism and the Avant-Garde Radio Plays: Recognizing the Modernity in a New Art-Form Audio Drama’s Second Modernist Manifesto Scholarship Linking Drama, Radio and Modernism 4: The Modernist Turn in Literature and Radio Studies: How It Changes Understanding of the History of Sound Drama David Hendy’s Research and Analysis of Lance Sieveking as Radio’s Originating Modernist The Modernist Turn in Literature, Radio and Other Multidisciplinary Studies 5: Bridging Political Modernism Between Descriptive Phonographs, 1920s Political BBC Radio Drama and the 1930s Agitational Radio Features Audio Drama Origins: Russell Hunting, Descriptive Phonograph Sketches and Great War Sound Propaganda Reginald Berkeley: Pioneering Political Radio Dramatist Agitational Feature Modernism Versus Media Institutional and State Containment ‘Colleging’, BBC Political Monitoring and the Security Service 6: Modernist Phonograph Drama in a Belfast Street and a Montage on War: The Sonic Genius of Russell Hunting The Montage War Drama: Battle of the Marne, 1914 7: Great War Descriptive Sketches Sound Storytelling and the Descriptive Sketches During the Great War Pre-Great War Context, ‘The Departure of the Troopship’: A Boer War Origination? Russell Hunting: Master of the ‘Swearing Machine’ and a Founding Voice of Radio Comedy The Many Facets of an Arriving and Departing Troopship ‘The Wreck of a Troopship’: Developing the Descriptive Sketch Narrative Overseas Origins of the Descriptive: Down the River and on the Farm Spoken Word Phonographs in Politics and Journalism The Great War Phonograph Context: 1914 Onwards Developing the Naval Theme with the Fleet in Action at Heligoland Analysis of ‘With the Fleet in Action Off Heligoland’ Phonograph Transcript Articulating a Happier Ending for the Birkenhead Spirit in 1917 Transcript and Analysis of ‘The Birkenhead Spirit. An Incident at Sea’ Dramatizing the War in the Air Transcript and Analysis of ‘An Air Raid Somewhere on the Coast’ Jingoistic Rhetoric by Phonograph: Bulldog Records The Recruiting Sketch: Facing Down ‘Cowards’ and ‘Slackers’ Mobilizing the Sound of Hatred Great War Phonograph Development: From Descriptive Sketch to Journalism and Documentary 8: Angels of Mons and the Divine Service for King and Country Major A.E Rees and ‘On Active Service Series’ Descriptive Sketches Sources and Establishing Age, Provenance and Authenticity The Angels of Mons: The Audio Play Textual and Contextual Analysis Transcript of Original Phonograph Disc of ‘The Angels of Mons’ Textual Analysis of ‘The Angels of Mons’ Phonograph as Audio Drama The B Side ‘A Soldier’s Wedding’ The Cultural and Social Context of Phonograph Listening The Relevance of Spiritualism The Relevance of Modernism 9: Are the Sound Drama Phonographs Examples of ‘Modernist’ Propaganda? Distinguishing Between Modernist and Non-Modernist Phonograph Dramas ‘The Wreck of a Troopship’ ‘On Active Service’ ‘Arrival of the British Troops in France’ ‘Christmas in Camp with Kitchener’s Boys’ Great War Phonograph Dramas as Part of the Propagandist Silo Are the Descriptive Sketch Sound Dramas Culpable for ‘Atrocity Propaganda’? Conclusions 10: Reginald Berkeley: Pioneering Modernist Playwright and Political Radio Drama as Agitational Contemporaneity Technical and Cultural Context: Phonograph Innovation and Electrical Recording Reginald Berkeley: Background and Influences The Modernism in The White Château Identifying the Modernist Credentials and Eventual Resonance The Quest of Elizabeth: The Beginning of the End for Berkeley and the BBC Machines: Modernism and Nemesis Conclusion 11: Direct BBC Censorship of Modernist Texts by D.G. Bridson and His Negotiation with Joan Littlewood and Olive Shapley of ‘Institutional Containment’ The Trouble with Harding The BBC’s Culture of Censorship The March of the ’45 Bridson Censored but Not Unbowed The Political Artifice of The March of the ’45 and The Classic Soil Casualties of MI5 Surveillance? Conclusions 12: Sound Drama as Political and Agitational Contemporaneity and Modernist Expression Findings: Phonograph Audio Drama Radio Drama at the BBC in the 1920s Radio Drama at the BBC in the 1930s MI5 Surveillance The Answer to the Core Question Bibliography Books Journals and Academic Theses Unpublished Archives Scripts from BBC Written Archives, Caversham The British Library: Lord Chamberlain’s Plays and Correspondence Files Play Scripts Sound Archive Curated for This Research Project Legal Rulings in Freedom of Information Cases Media Newspapers, Periodicals & Theatre Programmes Online Sources Index