Partners of the Imagination : The Lives, Art and Struggles of John Arden and Margaretta D’Arcy

"Partners of the Imagination is the first in-depth study of the work of John Arden and Margaretta D'Arcy, partners in writing and cultural and political campaigns. Beginning in the 1950s, Arden and D'Arcy created a series of hugely admired plays performed at Britain's major theatres. Political activists, they worked tirelessly in the peace movement and the Northern Ireland 'Troubles', during which D'Arcy was gaoled. She is also a veteran of the Greenham Common Women's Peace camp. Their later work included Booker-listed novels, prize-winning stories, essays and radio plays, and D'Arcy founded and ran a Woman's Pirate Radio station. Raymond Williams described Arden as 'the most genuinely innovative' of the playwrights of his generation, and Chambers and Prior claimed that 'The Non-Stop Connolly Show', D'Arcy and Arden's six-play epic, 'has fair claim to being one of the finest pieces of post-war drama in the English language'. This study explores the connections between art and life, and between the responsibilities of the writer and the citizen. Importantly, it also evaluates the range of literary works (plays, poetry, novels, essays, polemics) created by these writers, both as literature and drama, and as controversialist activity in its own right. This work is a landmark examination of two hugely respected radical writers"-- Provided by publisher Verlagsinfo: "Partners of the Imagination is the first in-depth study of the work of John Arden and Margaretta D'Arcy, partners in writing and cultural and political campaigns. Beginning in the 1950s, Arden and D'Arcy created a series of hugely admired plays performed at Britain's major theatres. Political activists, they worked tirelessly in the peace movement and the Northern Ireland 'Troubles', during which D'Arcy was gaoled. She is also a veteran of the Greenham Common Women's Peace camp. Their later work included Booker-listed novels, prize-winning stories, essays and radio plays, and D'Arcy founded and ran a Woman's Pirate Radio station. Raymond Williams described Arden as 'the most genuinely innovative' of the playwrights of his generation, and Chambers and Prior claimed that 'The Non-Stop Connolly Show', D'Arcy and Arden's six-play epic, 'has fair claim to being one of the finest pieces of post-war drama in the English language'. This study explores the connections between art and life, and between the responsibilities of the writer and the citizen. Importantly, it also evaluates the range of literary works (plays, poetry, novels, essays, polemics) created by these writers, both as literature and drama, and as controversialist activity in its own right. This work is a landmark examination of two hugely respected radical writers" Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of figures Introduction Acknowledgements Prologue Chapter 1: A Yorkshire boyhood Notes Chapter 2: Stirrings Notes Chapter 3: An Irish girlhood Notes Chapter 4: The aspiring actress Notes Chapter 5: At the Royal Court Theatre Notes Chapter 6: Towards collaboration Notes Chapter 7: Festivals of anarchy Notes Chapter 8: A playwright without his breeches Notes Chapter 9: Alternatives Notes Chapter 10: Cartoons, archetypes, slogans, theatre Notes Chapter 11: Looking and seeing Notes Chapter 12: An activist theatre Notes Chapter 13: A mighty bust-up Notes Chapter 14: Ireland once again Notes Chapter 15: Non-stop Notes Chapter 16: Pinpricks and follies Notes Chapter 17: Unperson – New person Notes Chapter 18: ‘If you are beaten down, you just rise again!’ Notes Chapter 19: Artists for freedom Notes Chapter 20: Pirate woman Notes Chapter 21: Undeviating paths Notes Chapter 22: The ink horn not yet dry Notes Chapter 23: Loose theatre Notes Chapter 24: ‘This was not history. It has not passed’ Notes Bibliography Full length books by John Arden and/or Margaretta D’Arcy General Bibliography Index