Understanding Alan Bennett
By: Peter Wolfe.
Series: Understanding contemporary British literature
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Columbia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 255
Subjects: Bennett, Alan, 1934-  -- Criticism and interpretation.
Description: In August 1960 four young men who never planned to have show business careers launched a revue in Edinburgh comprising skits and parodies, songs and monologues, on subjects such as nuclear holocaust, the cold war, and capital punishment. The review, called Beyond the Fringe, made instant celebrities of the group - Alan Bennett, Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller, and Peter Cook.

Of this now legendary troupe Bennett had the most dubious professional future in the mid-1960s. Yet in January 1992 this theatrical genius had two plays running in London's West End and had recently acted in one of his own teleplays. His suite of monologues, Talking Heads, was also opening in London's Comedy Theatre.

In Understanding Alan Bennett, Peter Wolfe conveys Bennett's originality, complexity of thought, and creative vigor while examining Bennett in his various roles as actor, director, playwright, and lyricist.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [239]-245) and index.
Table of contents: title: Tracking the fringe; title: Ho, to be in England; title: Some uses of history; title: Kafka and other office drones; title: Spies and other exiles; title: On the small screen.