Theater: 'Oh, Calcutta!' a Most Innocent Dirty Show Theater: 'Oh, Calcutta!' a Most Innocent Dirty Show By CLIVE BARNES oyeurs of the city unite, you have nothing to lose but your brains. During "Oh! Calcutta!," which I saw at the final preview and which opened last night at the Eden Theater, a member of the cast--barebacked as it were--announces with a simple but euphoric pride: "Gee, this makes 'Hair' seem like "The Sound of Music.'" On the contrary my friend, I assure you "Oh! Calcutta!" makes "The Sound of Music" seem like "Hair." There is no more innocent show in town--and certainly none more witless--than this silly little diversion, devised by Kenneth Tynan, produced by Hillard Elkins and destined to make the shrewd entrepreneurs the crock of gold that lies there somewhere over the rainbow. Innocent it is completely.

It is childlike when they strip--and the stripping dancing and staging are the only tolerable parts of the evening for the "mature audiences" to whom the producers are somewhat foolhardily addressing their sales pitch--and childish when they talk. The sketches are unbelievably weak. The sex joke, I must protest, has not in reality sunk so low. This is the kind of show to give pornography a dirty name. I have enormous respect for Ken Tynan, as critic, social observer and man of the theater. But what a nice dirty-minded boy like him is doing in a place like this I fail to understand. I thought we were to be offered a little pleasant erotic dramatic literature and a few neatly turned bawdy jokes. It was, I imagined, not to be the kind of evening for everyone, but for those who wanted it, a diverting place not to take your maiden aunt to. The authors, gathered together (although their individual contributions remain unidentified) are formidable.

Listen to them--Samuel Beckett, Jules Feiffer, Dan Greenburg, John Lennon, Jacques Levy, Leonard Melfi, David Newman and Robert Benton (they wrote "Bonnie and Clyde" although which wrote which I am not sure), Sam Shepard, Mr. Tynan himself and Sherman Yellen. But personally I think the butler did it, and that none of these fine and worthy men are really guilty. For the humor is so doggedly sophomoric and soporific that from internal evidence alone I would go to court and testify that in my opinion such highly literate men could not have been responsible. Luckily at the preview I saw the audience appeared to be moderately unsophisticated, and modestly grateful for anything. The jokes are prissy and silly--depending for their effectiveness, such as it is, on their na�ve attempts at being daring. My 7-year-old son recently went through a phase where he kept on trying to shock my young daughter with one of the more vital and active Anglo-Saxon swear words. For a day or so he succeeded--but I hasten to add that my daughter is only 5, and was not really a "mature audience" for him.

Eventually he failed to shock, and now seems to have accepted the advisability of restricting such language to private moments of considerable stress. But, I hear you asking yourself, is all the written material stale, flat and merely profitable. The answer is no. One sketch--called "Delicious Indignities"--was very funny indeed and had a genuine literary feel to it. Wait till they do it on television--you'll scream. I also admit I was very amused by a burlesque-style skit, a few years after Dr. Kronheit, on human sexual response. It wasn't witty, it wasn't clever, but it made me laugh immoderately. The failure here is almost exclusively a failure of the writers and the producers. The director, Jacques Levy, has done his best with the weak material at hand. The opening--a group-spoof striptease--has just the right touch of erotic sophistication, but regrettably it is a touch never again repeated in the show. However, the nude scenes, while derivative, are attractive enough.

The best effects--including the rather sweet grope-in immediately after the intermission--have been taken from Robert Joffrey's ballet "Astarte," and the show uses the same projected media designers, Gardner Copton and Emile Ardolino, and, of course, rock music, here provided by the Open Window. The Joffrey Balley version was not only better but also far, far sexier. It is curious how anti-erotic public nudity, as opposed to private nudity, is. There is a clinical lack of mystery about it that, speaking for myself, makes me disconcertingly think pure and beautiful thoughts. Other people of course may have other reactions. For students of form, I should point out that while Margo Sappington (an ex-Joffrey dancer of great promise I always expected to see more of, although hardly as much as this) has devised pleasant choreography, it is not very original. The San Francisco Dance Workshop does the nude bit better and prettier. In sum, "Oh! Calcutta!" is likely to disappoint different people in different ways, but disappointment is the order of the right.

To be honest, I think I can recommend the show with any vigor only to people who are extraordinarily underprivileged either sexually, socially or emotionally. Now is your chance to stand up and be counted. Etymological Note Perhaps the only witty joke of the evening is the title "Oh! Calcutta!" This is not a reference to the black hole of Indian mutiny fame, but is the title of a painting by the contemporary French artist Clovis Trouille that shows the tattooed behind of a well-endowed young lady. The title is a pun. It suggests in French: "Oh! Quelle-- -- --t'as!" The dashes represent a three- letter French argot word that Le Monde would not dream of publishing. Or, freely translated: "What a lovely-- -- -- --you have!" The dashes represent a slightly longer Anglo-Saxon word the English language edition of Le Monde would not dream of publishing. Yes, Virginia, that really was the best joke. STAGE REVIEW : 'Oh! Calcutta!' Revue Still a Terrible Show - latimes YOU ARE HERE: LAT Home → Collections STAGE REVIEW : 'Oh!

Calcutta!' Revue Still a Terrible Show February 20, 1990 |MARK CHALON SMITH ANAHEIM — With its heh-heh-heh nudity and dirty jokes, "Oh! Calcutta!" immediately became a Broadway winner in 1969, despite repeated lashings by critics. Tourists eager for an eyeful and an earful routinely put the musical revue on their list of things to do. The success of "Oh! Calcutta!" proved the notion that really bad theater could still make money as long as the public was intrigued by a gimmick. That may still be the abiding idea behind the traveling show that settled into the Celebrity Theatre Sunday for two performances. Ticket-buyers, probably more curious than anything else, still turned up, and "Oh! Calcutta!" is still a terrible show. At least when it opened, this collaborative effort--devised by British drama critic Kenneth Tynan and featuring uninspired, sexually oriented writing by the usually inspired likes of Samuel Beckett, Sam Shepard, John Lennon and Jules Feiffer--could, barely, justify itself as something of a comment on the sexual attitudes of the day.

Now, it seems strikingly dated and cliched. "Oh! Calcutta!" isn't necessarily inappropriate (although the Jack raping Jill bit in the first act is creepily offensive), it's worse--it's artless, pointless and boring. At Sunday's matinee, the Mac Clarke-directed skits, ranging from a young couple having second thoughts about swinging to hi-jinks in a sexual experimentation lab done a la the Marx Brothers, thudded with dull, tired humor. And the softer, erotic ballets and ensemble dances were derivative and uninvolving. Choreographer Cheryl Hartley's non-Equity cast (Jon Chernes, Tracy Gilchrist, B. J. Grogan, Amy Harwood, Grace Little, Peter Mannion, Nancy Rollins and Michael Lee Walker, in various roles) did take off their clothes with some dexterity. Actually, the actors did try to instill this exhausted piece with a little vitality by assuming a dashing vaudevillian tempo, but to no avail. Lewis Folden's cart-and-carry set was functional but only that. Robert Hale's lighting was most effective during the dance numbers when it was more muted; it was too glaring at other times. 'OH!

CALCUTTA!' A Singer Entertainment Consultants Ltd. production of the musical revue devised by Kenneth Tynan. Directed by Mac Clarke. With Jon Chernes, Tracy Gilchrist, B. J. Grogan, Amy Harwood, Grace Little, Peter Mannion, Nancy Rollins and Michael Lee Walker. Choreography by Cheryl Hartley. Set by Lewis Folden. Lighting by Robert Hale. Musical direction by Barry Harwood. MORE: Domini Blythe: British-born actress who became one of Canada's leading stage performers | The Independent Domini Blythe: British-born actress who became one of Canada's leading stage performers Wednesday 23 February 2011 00:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Online The British-born actress Domini Blythe appeared on the London stage among an all-naked cast in the erotic revue Oh! Calcutta! before emigrating to Canada, where she became a leading performer on the classical stage. Oh!

Calcutta!, devised by the theatre critic Kenneth Tynan and boasting Samuel Beckett, John Lennon and Edna O'Brien among its sketch writers, opened in the West End (Royalty Theatre, 1970) a year after the Broadway production took audiences by storm, although Clive Barnes, writing in The New York Times, protested: "The sex joke has, in reality, not sunk so low. This is the kind of show to give pornography a dirty name." In Britain, the revue was seen by moral crusaders as the permissive Sixties gone too far, but police advice to close it down was overruled by the Director of Public Prosecutions. Blythe stripped off again when she played a schoolteacher's wife in the 1971 film Vampire Circus, one of Hammer's more inventive horror productions of that period. In the memorable opening sequence, she is seen as the village schoolteacher's wife who makes love to a vampire after being aroused by the sight of his feeding on a small girl whom she has lured to his castle. The late Canadian actor Richard Monette, who appeared in Oh!

Calcutta!, then persuaded Blythe to travel with him to his homeland in 1972. This began a lifelong friendship and signalled the most successful phase of her career. Over 30 years (1976-2006), she spent 11 seasons with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival company, taking lead roles such as Portia in The Merchant of Venice (1976), Celia in As You Like It (1977, alongside Maggie Smith as Rosalind), Lady McDuff in Macbeth (1978), Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost (1979), Gertrude in Hamlet (2000), Mamita in Gigi (2003) and, finally, Mistress Quickly in Henry VI Part 1 (2006). Monette, a leading man in the company, eventually became its artistic director. Born in Upton, Cheshire, in 1947, Blythe was the daughter of actors Richard Blythe and Maureen Murphy, and trained at Central School of Speech and Drama.

Before moving to Canada, she was seen for the first time on screen in an episode of Boy Meets Girl (1969). In Canada, Blythe spent three seasons at the Shaw Festival, then joined the Stratford Shakespeare company in Ontario. She returned to Britain in 1980 to act opposite Alan Howard at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in the RSC's productions of Richard II, as Isabel, and Richard III, as Elizabeth. Her performance in the second led one critic to praise Blythe's "coarse-grained Elizabeth, hitting people with her handbag like the lady in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In". During the 1980s and 1990s, Blythe unofficially retired from the stage to take more screen roles. These included Katherine Valeur, matriarch of a wealthy Montreal family, in the Canadian family drama Mount Royal (1988), a big-budget, failed attempt to mimic the success of Dynasty. Costing one million Canadian dollars per episode, it was then the most expensive programme in the country's television history.

Blythe also acted in Danielle Steele's Vanished (1995) and played a prudish schoolteacher in the award-winning film comedy The Trotsky (2009). In 2000, she returned to classical stage roles with the Stratford Shakespeare company and there also performed her own one-woman show, Fanny Kemble (2006), written by Peter Hinton and based on the life of the 19th-century actress. Blythe, who took five roles in the play, identified with her subject because they were both British and moved to North America. In addition to other stage work in Canada, during the 1990s she taught acting at Concordia University in Montreal. Blythe is survived by her partner of more than 20 years, Jean Beaudin, a film writer and director. Domini Miranda Blythe, actress: born Upton, Cheshire 28 August 1947; died Montreal, Quebec 15 December 2010. More about: Jacques Levy, Director of Broadway's Oh! Calcutta! and Doonesbury, Dead at 69 | Playbill Jacques Levy, Director of Broadway's Oh!

Calcutta! and Doonesbury, Dead at 69 By Kenneth Jones , Robert Simonson Oct 04, 2004 Jacques Levy, the lyricist, director and teacher who staged the naughty long-running revue, Oh! Calcutta!, as well as the musical Doonesbury and Off Broadway's America Hurrah, died Sept. 30 in Manhattan, according to The New York Times. The cause of death was cancer, his family said. Mr. Levy was 69 and lived in SoHo. Mr. Levy was a lyricist who contributed to the stage musical, Fame. He also co-wrote several songs on Bob Dylan's classic "Desire" album. Mr. Levy rose to prominence in the mid-60s as the director of Jean-Claude van Itallie's America Hurrah and was active in The Open Theatre, the experimental Off Broadway playground run by Joseph Chaikin. He also directed Bruce Jay Friedman's Off-Broadway Scuba Duba (mentioned in "The Season," William Goldman's document of the 1967-68 Broadway season).

His most high-profile work was directing the 1969 Broadway revue about sex, Oh! Calcutta!, which was devised by Kenneth Tynan and had contributions from writers as diverse as Sam Shepard , David Newman, John Lennon, Jules Feiffer and Leonard Melfi. He directed the 1976 revival, as well, which stacked up 5,959 performances to become one of the longest-running shows in Broadway history. Mr. Levy also contributed songs to the show. Accoring to Kathleen Tynan's "The Autobiography of Kenneth Tynan," the critic hired Levy as the director of Calcutta after seeing a London production of America Hurrah. Mr. Levy spent much time considering how best to confront the question of nudity. Finally, during one point in early rehearsals, Mr. Levy told the cast simply, "Take off your robes." "It was back to the Garden all of a sudden, a great high," he recalled, "but not an erotic one. Once they'd broken that barrier it was a lot easier." Both Mr. Levy and Tynan consider Calcutta a precursor to A Chorus Line . Mr.

Levy also mounted early works by Sam Shepard (La Turista) and Terrence McNally (Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?) and worked at the legendary Judson Poets Theater, Playbill On-Line previously reported. His Broadway credits include directing the musical Doonesbury (1983-84 season) and the play Almost and Eagle. His work in Scuba Duba resulted in a brief war or words with New Republic critic Richard Gilman. Gilman called the play "a new perfect product of the new pseudo-sophistication," and said Levy's "work is constantly threatened by a streak of tastelessness announcing itself as verve." Mr. Levy retaliated by mocking the critic in a subsequent New York Times interview. Gilman then published an essay in which he relagated Mr. Levy to the ranks of a new theatre movement called "The New Barbarism," in which theatre artists simply did their "thing" and rejected all formal criticism. Mr. Levy won an Obie Award in 1966. According to the Times, he taught directing and playwriting at New York University, Columbia and Yale, as well as Colgate University. In 2002, Mr.

Levy directed Off-Broadway's The Bridge in Scarsdale, a new play by Robert Remington Wood. Bridge told of a painter who has been holed up in a mental institution for a quarter century and her husband, a famous designer of bridges. The Times reported he graduated from City College in 1956 and later earned a master's degree at the Michigan State University in 1958 and later a PhD there in 1961. After a stint as a clinical psychologist, he moved to working in the theatre. He is survived by wife Claudia Carr Levy, daughter Maya Jeanne and song Julien. Today’s Most Popular News: Oh! Calcutta! - Wikipedia, Photos and Videos Oh! Calcutta! NEXT GO TO RESULTS [51 .. 100] WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE For the restaurant brand, see Speciality Restaurants Limited . Oh! Calcutta! Oh! Calcutta! original soundtrack cover Music Peter Schickele, Robert Dennis and Stanley Walden Book 1977 Madrid Oh! Calcutta! is an avant-garde theatrical revue , created by British drama critic Kenneth Tynan .

The show, consisting of sketches on sex-related topics, debuted Off-Broadway in 1969 and then in the West End in 1970. It ran in London for over 3,900 performances, and in New York initially for 1,314. Revivals enjoyed even longer runs, including a Broadway revival that ran for 5,959 performances, making the show the longest-running revue in Broadway history at the time. As of 2012, its revival was still the seventh longest-running show in Broadway history, the second longest-running revival, after Chicago , and the fourth longest-running Broadway show ever, after Chicago, A Chorus Line and The Lion King . The show sparked considerable controversy at the time, because it featured extended scenes of total nudity, both male and female. The title is taken from a painting by Clovis Trouille , itself a pun on "O quel cul t'as!" French for "What an arse you have!". [1] Contents 6 External links Background and productions[ edit ] Tynan had hoped that Harold Pinter would direct the production, in order to give it avant-garde legitimacy, but Pinter declined.

Sketches were written by, amongst others, Nobel prize winner Samuel Beckett , John Lennon , Sam Shepard , Leonard Melfi , Edna O'Brien , Jules Feiffer , and Tynan himself, and featured the cast naked. Peter Schickele (aka "PDQ Bach"), Robert Dennis and Stanley Walden were the revue's composers , known as The Open Window. Beckett's contribution, Breath , was used as a Prologue in the original New York staging, but Beckett eventually withdrew permission for its use. The musical opened off-Broadway at the Eden Theatre on June 21, 1969, transferred to the Belasco Theatre on February 17, 1971, and closed on August 12, 1972 after a total of 1,314 performances. It was directed by Jacques Levy (later the songwriting partner of Bob Dylan on his album Desire ) and choreographed by Margo Sappington .

The cast included Raina Barrett, Mark Dempsey, Katie Drew-Wilkinson, Boni Enten, Bill Macy , Alan Rachins , Leon Russom , Margo Sappington , Nancy Tribush and George Welbes, [2] as well as the 3 "Open Window" composers. The musical premiered in London on July 27, 1970 at The Roundhouse , and transferred to the West End Royalty Theatre on September 30, 1970, running through January 27, 1974. The show then transferred to the Duchess Theatre on January 28, 1974, where it ran until 1980, for a total of 3,918 performances. [3] [4] [5] The London show was produced by Michael White . [6] [7] Billboard on Broadway in 1981 A revival opened on Broadway at the Edison Theatre on September 24, 1976 and closed on August 6, 1989 after 5,959 performances, again directed and choreographed by Levy and Sappington.

The revival briefly became the longest-running show in Broadway history. It remains Broadway's seventh longest-running show and the longest-running revue in Broadway history. [8] A pay-per-view video production played on closed-circuit TV in select cities in 1971, and was released theatrically in 1972; in both cases many cities and municipalities banned its showing. Frank Herold, an editor who worked on the film, provides commentary on this in a brief post he contributed to the project's IMDB page. [9] The Spanish-language premiere production opened on October 9, 1977 at Teatro Principe in Madrid, Spain, directed by Juan Jose Alonso Millan, who also translated the show. Sketches and songs[ edit ] Note: the musical revue was in the form of sketches. These are taken from the 1971 production shown on pay-per-view. Lyrics and music by Robert Dennis, Peter Schickele and Stanley Walden (unless otherwise noted). Samuel Beckett's "Breath" (until license withdrawn by author) Taking Off the Robe The actors dance and remove their robes to the opening song ("Taking Off the Robe" (Oh!

Calcutta!)). Jack and Jill A boy and a girl who just met are in their own playland, with the boy constantly trying to find ways to seduce the girl who is afraid of him because he's a boy. The sketch ends with the girl in a coma after the boy rapes her ("Jack & Jill"). A Suite of Five Letters A song of five letters written by anonymous authors about their sexual preferences ("Suite for Five Letters"). Actually they were letters to the editor from various newspapers from olden times in London and later in the Suite, contemporary letters from sexual newspapers of the day. Dick and Jane An uptight girl gets a lesson in loosening up after her lover is sick of her constantly stiff ways ("Dick & Jane"). Will Answer All Serious Replies A young couple start to rethink getting into the swingers lifestyle after meeting the middle-aged couple who answer their ad ("(Will Answer All) Sincere Replies"). Delicious Indignities A chaste woman is caught by her admirer, who then proceeds to learn that she isn't as chaste as he thinks she is ("Delicious Indignities (or The Deflowering of Helen Axminster") was written by Sherman Yellen ). Was It Good for You, Too?

A man participates in a sex study and the whole experience ends up turning into one big farce ("Was It Good For You Too? (Green Pants, I Like the Look)"). The scene plays like the Marx Brothers at a sex research facility. "Who, Whom (Exchanges of Information)" (Added during run) Life Is Over Much Too Soon A pre-filmed section, where the actors are nude outside doing interpretive dance ("Much Too Soon"), music and lyrics by Jacques Levy, Dennis, Schickele, and Walden. One on One Another nude interpretive dance ("One on One (Clarence and Mildred)"). Rock Garden After a man rambles on about painting the fence and building a rock garden, his son talks about what girls really like ("Rock Garden"). Four in Hand A newcomer to a masturbation game can't seem to think of anything to masturbate to ("Four in Hand"). (The first draft of this sketch was written by John Lennon .) [10] [11] Finale Players come out to sing the final song and dance, also doing voiceover as to what the theater patrons are really thinking about the experience.

Examples include: "She has pretty eyes" (the joke being that all of the actors are nude at this point), "How come none of the guys have hard-ons ?" "That's my boyfriend—that IS a hard-on", and "If they showed this in Washington , Agnew would shit!" ("Coming Together, Going Together"). Critical response[ edit ] Clive Barnes , in his 1969 New York Times review, wrote that "the humor is so doggedly sophomoric and soporific", adding "The failure here is almost exclusively a failure of the writers and the producers. The director, Jacques Levy, has done his best with the weak material at hand...the nude scenes, while derivative, are attractive enough. The best effects—including the rather sweet grope-in immediately after the intermission—have been taken from Robert Joffrey's ballet 'Astarte,' and the show uses the same projected media designers...In sum, 'Oh! Calcutta!' is likely to disappoint different people in different ways, but disappointment is the order of the night." [12] Irving Wardle , writing in The Times in 1970, said: "I have seen better revues than Oh!

Calcutta! but none based on ideas that strike me as more sympathetic. Namely that the ordinary human body is an object well worth attention: and that there is no reason why the public treatment of sex should not be extended to take in not only lyricism and personal emotion but also the rich harvest of bawdy jokes." He noted that the enjoyment and lack of embarrassment of the cast helped the audience to accept the more insubstantial elements of the review's material and that the stage sets' screen projections assisted the dance numbers considerably, concluding: "In many ways it is a ghastly show: ill-written, juvenile, and attention-seeking. But it is not a menace". [13] Obscenity allegations[ edit ] The 1970 Roundhouse, London production attracted the attention of the Metropolitan Police 's Obscene Publications Squad, which sent two officers to a preview of the show. One of the officers returned twice more before recommending a prosecution under the 1968 Theatres Act for obscenity. The Director of Public Prosecutions sent its panel of experts – including two retired headmistresses – to see the Roundhouse production and their judgement that it was not obscene enabled it to transfer to London's West End.

[14] Arts & Media Arts & Media Literary Manager of the National Theatre, the post first held by Kenneth Tynan (1945). Carey, John 1996 Five times world Irish dance champion who took part in Riverdance and Lord of the Dance. Cooper, George Melville Actor on stage and screen. French, Robin 1997 Writer in Residence, Birmingham Repertory Theatre (2013- ); co-creator of BBC series, Cuckoo, with fellow Old Ed Kieron Quirke (1997). Huntley, Raymond Actor on stage, in films and television. Joseph, Nathan 1957 Entrepreneur; has been successful on both sides of the Atlantic in music publishing and is now a theatrical producer and agent; member of the Council of the Theatrical Managers' Association, and of the Theatre Advisory Council. Lee, Kevin (Kevin Elyot) 1970 Actor in theatre and on television; writer of plays, television adaptations of Agatha Christie and other works; winner of the Writers Guild Award (1991).

Natkiel, Alastair 1999 Television and stage action, appeared in West End productions Shrek the Musical and Strangers on a Train Quirke, Kieron Co-creator of BBC series, Cuckoo, with fellow Old Ed Robin French (1997). Reese, Walter Llewellyn 1920 Actor; general secretary of British Actors Equity (1940-1946); administrator of the Old Vic (1949-1951) and other theatres Spicer, Charles Goulding, Fraser J 1966 Director of Music and permanent conductor, D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1979 until its closure in 1982; since then, a freelance conductor. Gray, Jeremy Founder of the Bampton Classical Opera. Jordan, John 1959 FRCO; Master of Music, Chelmsford Cathedral (1965-1981); President of the Incorporated Association of Organists (1975-1977); Director of Music Studies, Yamaha School of Music, Kuching, Sarawak (1988-1991).

Long, David E Hon Secretary of the Royal Philharmonic Society. Munrow, David B 1960 Musician extraordinary; a dynamic pioneer in the performance and dissemination of medieval music; a brilliant deviser of radio programmes about music. Myers, Stanley 1945 Composer of Cavatina for guitarist John Williams (theme of movie The Deerhunter) and much other music for film and television. Oxley, T Frederick Harrison 1951 FRCO; organist and Master of the Choristers, St Edmundsbury Cathedral (1958-1984); conductor of the St Edmundsbury Bach Choir and Orchestra (1958-2001); recitalist. MEDIA Director of the British Board of Film Classification. Edwards, Ernest G 1900 Sporting journalist and broadcaster in Liverpool, Sports Editor of the Liverpool Echo (1902- ), responsible for naming ‘Spion Kop' at Anfield. Ferns, W Paterson 1963 C.M. (2005); President of Ferns Productions Inc., Canada. Produced some of Canada's finest award-winning programming and the world's leading media events.

Presents signature pitching sessions worldwide. Awarded The Order of Canada in 2005 for his services to the industry. Filkin, David TV producer; producer of TV series Stephen Hawking's Universe Franks, Tim BBC Sports News Correspondent; formerly BBC Middle East Correspondent. Gibbs, Jonathan Head of editing and post-production sound at the BBC Television Centre. Grant, Jim (aka Lee Child) 1972 Novelist, famous for the Jack Reacher novels. First novel, Killing Floor, won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel and 13th novel, Gone Tomorrow, published in 2009, reached Number One in the US book charts. Previously presentation director at Granada TV for 18 years, involved (inter alia) in the making of Brideshead Revisited and The Jewel in the Crown. Hadley, L P Editor of The Birmingham Post. Hall, Tony Lord Hall of Birkenhead; CEO Royal Opera House (2000-2013); Director-General of the BBC (2013 - ). Harvey, Brian Features editor of the Daily Telegraph.

Heron, Robert Head of Educational Broadcasting, ATV; Director of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme; CVO. Hoggart, Paul Journalist for The Times, The Observer Holland, Julian Journalist and broadcaster, ultimately editor of BBC Radio Today program. Hutton, Thomas W Editor of the Birmingham Post; historian of the school and governor. Kemp, T C Grant, Jim (aka Lee Child) 1972 Novelist, famous for the Jack Reacher novels. First novel, Killing Floor, won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel and 13th novel, Gone Tomorrow, published in 2009, reached Number One in the US book charts. Was previously presentation director at Granada TV for 18 years, involved (inter alia) in the making of Brideshead Revisited and The Jewel in the Crown. Griffiths, Paul A 1965 Music critic of The Times; novelist and librettist. Named a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011.

Hayes, Alfred Poet, writer of two KES school songs Lewis, Roy 1931 (c) Journalist and writer; his books included a science fiction novel, The Evolution Man, which was a best-seller in its French translation and was made into a film cartoon in Czechoslovakia. Lyall, Gavin Journalist, television producer and novelist. McCarty, Nicholas 1958 Television dramatist and novelist. Award winning writer of radio drama series and serials as well as many original plays. Mitford, Bertram Major, winning distinction in Egypt; writer of adventure stories Morton, Henry Vollam 1909 Author of books largely about places, accompanied Churchill at his Atlantic Charter meeting with Roosevelt, as recorded in his book The Atlantic Meeting. Rudkin, David Biographer and cricket writer; biographies include Edith Cavell, Ravenstein and Sir Oliver Leese.

Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel 1911 CBE; Professor of English Language at Leeds University (1924); Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford (1925-1945); Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford (1945-1959); celebrated author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Tynan, Kenneth Peacock 1945 Brilliant drama critic of the Observer newspaper (1954-1963); propagandist for the drama of Bertold Brecht when it was hardly ever seen on the English stage; Literary Adviser to the National Theatre (1963- ); one of the authors of the erotic revue Oh! Calcutta! (1969).

Wolffe, Richard Journalist, author of two books about the Presidency of US President Barack Obama Tynan: Theater and Dance Events on washingtonpost.com Tynan Theater review: 'Tynan' at Studio Theatre, brash as ever By Nelson Pressley Wednesday, January 26, 2011 The one-man show "Tynan" at Studio Theatre is based on the great British theater critic Kenneth Tynan's diaries of his final decade - he died in 1980, only 53 years old. Listening to his pronouncements on art is like hearing a man rant about a land where he used to be king. "The critic's job - at least 9/10ths of it - is to make way for the good by demolishing the bad," Tynan wrote, a sentiment that makes its way into the fluid 90-minute stage adaptation by Richard Nelson and Colin Chambers. "I wish I were back at work bulldozing." Philip Goodwin, who has played his share of kings, gives this line the regal treatment, but it's a rare display of Tynan's nearly unparalleled critical ferocity.

The greater part of Goodwin's surgical portrayal is in cooler tones of mischief, disgust and melancholy; acting on a bare platform, with a lone chair from which to pontificate and with the Metheny Theatre's blasted back wall behind him, Goodwin delivers a brilliant mind not so much exiled as lost. The wintry mood suits the play's theme of decline. The period of "Tynan" is the 1970s, and Tynan hadn't been a working critic since 1963. As this chronicle begins, he's nearing the end of his tenure as the Royal National Theatre's first literary manager, and though he still rates the odd plum magazine gig from the New Yorker, he lacks a steady platform for the ravishing and lacerating writing that made him famous. This Peacock (Tynan's middle name) plainly pines for the limelight. Here's the shame: If you are familiar with Tynan, it's likely for the wrong things. Books chronicling his outrageous personality have long been easier to come by than books aggregating his theater writings.

His greater reputation, therefore, is as a distinguished naughty boy of the 1960s and '70s - decades when it took some doing to stand out from the randy crowd. The easiest way to explain him is as the man behind the long-running nudie revue "Oh! Calcutta!" and as the unapologetic joker known for his spanking jones (a penchant well-explicated in the play). Yet he was a splendid stylist, as this adaptation of the John Lahr-edited diaries reminds us. The most theatrical thing about "Tynan" is the gem-cut sentences within which Tynan performed; they are crafty, bravura events, detonations of deadly wit and mordancy. They ought to be heck on an actor - this wasn't playwriting, after all - but Goodwin, whose intellect is generally the first thing about him that registers onstage, is a great choice. He speaks in gleaming tones, admiring the linguistic panache yet effortlessly knifing whatever the hedonistic, acutely observant, relentlessly analytic character doesn't like - including his own disappointed and indulgent self.

Of course "Tynan" is major-league inside baseball, best enjoyed by viewers who already know about Tynan's testy relationship with Laurence Olivier, his bitter exit at the National, his strained marriage with second wife Kathleen and the cruel joke of spending his final years in the sunshine of California, when his carbon-loaded blood and lungs made a mockery of such radiance. (He was a heavy smoker and died of emphysema.) It's a juicy name-dropping play in which John Gielgud gets a few good punch lines via stories retold by Tynan, but no one's going to barnstorm before adoring hordes with this prickly profile. That's fine: In fact, that's what makes this ruthless, vigorous performance worthwhile. Among other things, Tynan railed against the "vulgar narcissism" of demanding to see only ourselves onstage. "We go to plays to learn about others," he declared, and "Tynan" abides by that. The cold light cast on this subject by Goodwin and director Paul Mullins is Tynan's own, often aglow with wicked enthusiasm and never afraid to be harsh. Tynan by Richard Nelson and Colin Chambers.

Directed by Paul Mullins. Setting, Luciana Stecconi; lights, Michael Giannitti; costumes, Brandee Mathies; sound, Gil Thompson; projections, Erik Trester. Philip Goodwin plays provocative theater critic in 'Tynan' at Studio Theatre By Celia Wren Friday, January 21, 2011 Glimpse actor Philip Goodwin sitting quietly on a sofa, in an out-of-the-way nook at the Studio Theatre, and you'd never guess at his current alternate identity as a flamboyant provocateur. The 56-year-old performer - a Broadway veteran and multiple Helen Hayes Award winner from his many turns on D.C. stages - is wearing a black suit, a sober blue tie and a white shirt that nearly matches his silvery hair. His voice is soft; his demeanor reserved. But in "Tynan" - a one-man show running at Studio through Feb. 6 - Goodwin plays an ostentatious genius and social whirlwind who happened to be the grenade-lobber of modern theater criticism.

The dazzling British prose stylist Kenneth Tynan went to bat for writers like John Osborne and Bertolt Brecht and, in doing so, helped steer the course of 20th-century drama. In the pages of the New Yorker, the Observer and other publications, Tynan made pronouncements that were brilliant and sometimes cruel. Vivien Leigh, he wrote, approached the role of Cleopatra "with the daintiness of a debutante called upon to dismember a stag." Orson Welles's Othello "waded through the great speeches, pausing before the stronger words like a landing craft breasting a swell." A gaudy dresser who at one point favored gold satin shirts, gold velvet ties and a purple doeskin suit, Tynan burst into journalism at a young age and later served as literary manager for Britain's renowned National Theatre. He devised the infamous 1969 erotic review "Oh! Calcutta!" and, on a personal level, he had hang-ups and secrets, struggling with insecurity and a stammer, and indulging a sexual fetish - spanking.

Tynan encompassed "a lot of things I thought it would be difficult to live with, difficult to reconcile," Goodwin says, explaining his interest in the part. "He was complicated. And to actually dig down deeply to a character like that is a huge challenge." An additional incentive was the fact that Goodwin had never tackled a one-man show. "I had this strange idea in my head that it's something that every actor should try," he says. A New York-based actor who considers the District his "artistic home," Goodwin has appeared at Studio in shows like "Ivanov" and "The Play About the Baby." A Shakespeare Theatre Company affiliated artist, he landed the Helen Hayes Awards for his roles in a 1989 "Twelfth Night," a 2000 "Timon of Athens" and 2006's "An Enemy of the People." Most recently, he played Malvolio in the company's 2010 Free-for-All "Twelfth Night." "Philip Goodwin is one of the finest American actors," says Joy Zinoman, who recruited him to "Tynan" before she relinquished her post as Studio's artistic director.

She speaks of Goodwin's "sophisticated mind" and "monklike discipline," recalling that the first time she directed him - in Gilles Segal's drama "The Puppetmaster of Lodz" in the early 1990s - the actor not only mastered puppetry but took to lugging one of the production's key manikins home every evening in a green garbage bag. "That kind of dedication to the work, that he was going to spend 24 hours a day with this puppet and make it part of his life" impressed her hugely, Zinoman says. Across town, Shakespeare Theatre Artistic Director Michael Kahn says he wouldn't have programmed "Timon" and, in the late 1990s, "King John" had Goodwin not been available for the title roles. "He's got a great deal of equipment, in terms of his voice and his body and an ability to play different styles," Kahn says.

"But he's also very, very smart - thinks very hard and often quite unconventionally about parts." Kahn cites the time he cast Goodwin as the Fool in "King Lear," and the actor hit on the idea of playing the character as a double-amputee who scooted about on a wagon. "It was a wonderful contribution to the show. And Philip is like that all the time," Kahn says. Goodwin is "a national treasure" raves Brian Kulick, artistic director of New York City's Classic Stage Company, where Goodwin will be performing in March in "Double Falsehood." When casting certain critical Shakespeare roles, Kulick adds, "Philip is the first person I think of, because he brings that tremendous humanity and poetry and life to things." Although many of Goodwin's credits are classical, it was a Woody Allen comedy that hooked him on the limelight. Growing up in Maine, he auditioned in a high school auditorium for a production of "Don't Drink the Water." Hearing "the sound of my own voice echoing off the back walls," he recalls, made him realize how powerful vocal expression could be.

He went on to major in history at Bowdoin College but subsequently studied acting in London and kicked off his professional career with the Acting Company, the American touring classical troupe. Unmarried, with no children or pets, he lives with his partner in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood in a home boasting a modest assortment of art and knickknacks. To burnish the collection, but also for fun, Goodwin spends his spare time poking around flea markets, antique shops and eBay. He's particularly pleased with his recent purchase of an ashtray to match a crazily colored porcelain cat he happens to own. ("Maybe the cat wants to smoke sometime," the non-smoking actor points out.) Visiting museums is another hobby - one that's particularly easy to satisfy during his frequent stays in Washington. The National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum are particular favorites, although he notes that last time he was in a show at Studio, he managed to visit the Textile Museum twice. He also likes to read, especially history: Adam Nicolson's "God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible" is next on his list.

As for perusing his own reviews: After receiving a few that rankled - "Doesn't everybody remember the stinging things in their lives?" - he has taken to avoiding them. Were Tynan slinging the ink, of course, it might be different. "Tynan's writing was fantastic," Goodwin says, theorizing that the British virtuoso might flourish on the current Internet-chiseled critical landscape. While deeply discerning, Tynan's reviews brimmed with "that sense of showing off," Goodwin says. "That's what blogs are for. Look how much I can score off somebody else - how clever I can be!" Of course, "Tynan," first performed by Corin Redgrave in England in 2004 and directed for Studio by Paul Mullins, is no mere portrait of a journalist. Dramatists Richard Nelson and Colin Chambers adapted the script from the diaries Tynan kept during the last decade of his life, and the play chronicles the writer's battle with the emphysema that would kill him.

Also included: Tynan's now-wistful, now-sardonic, always eloquent reflections on John Gielgud, "Larry" Olivier, Schubert, California carwashes, sex and spanking, C.S. Lewis, marriage, the wonders of driving a Jaguar and more. "Tynan" is a kaleidoscope of luminously phrased thought - but its real strength, Goodwin emphasizes, is that "it's about a life." Want to go? Oh, Calcutta! Summary - eNotes.com Oh, Calcutta! Summary link Link Oh, Calcutta! premiered at the Eden Theater in New York City on June 17, 1969, and in London the following year. Originally devised by the drama critic, author, and journalist Kenneth Tynan, as “an evening of elegant erotica,” it was conceived and directed by Jacques Levy during a period in America when sexuality was being extensively explored, both in the arts and the general population. As an enthusiastic admirer of the nightclub performances of Lenny Bruce, Tynan had always been a vociferous opponent of the theater censorship that existed in England from the mid-eighteenth century.

In 1965 he wrote that governments effectively control artists in two ways, through direct censorship, and through withholding subsidies, thereby forcing the playwrights “to turn out lovable, undisturbing after-dinner entertainment.” Tynan believed that erotic stimulation was a legitimate function of art, good or bad. Oh, Calcutta! was basically a musical revue consisting of sketches and group musical numbers by various writers. However, the show included blatant nudity, simulation of sexual intercourse, and libidinous humor, all of which shocked the New York critics, who described it as hard-core pornography, brutalizing, degrading, tedious, and witless, but also “shatteringly effective.” Audiences flocked to see the show. Besides enjoying long runs in New York and London, it was performed in cities throughout the world, though in Australia’s South Australia and Victoria states performances were banned. Start Free Trial Start your free trial with eNotes to access more than 30,000 study guides. Get help with any book. City Officials Consulting With 'Oh! Calcutta!' Staff City Officials Consulting With 'Oh!

Calcutta!' Staff By LEWIS FUNKE n an unusual procedure, members of city departments have been consulting--"unofficially"--with the management of "Oh! Calcutta," the Off Broadway revue with sex as the theme that is giving preview performances at the Eden Theater. This was disclosed yesterday by the show's producer, Hilliard Elkins, who said that his guests had been attending the theater, at Second Avenue and 12th Street, as "a special favor." Some were invited to the first preview, at which only part of the show was presented. They are expected to return. Others have seen later performances. The revue is to open officially on June 17. The consultations reflect the management's concern with the show's contents as well as the wish to avoid running afoul of the law, as was the case with "Che!", an off-off Broadway production that opened March 22 at the Free Store Theater, 114 Cooper Square. It was ordered closed two days later. "Oh!

Calcutta!", devised by Kenneth Tynan, literary manager of Britain's National Theater and a leading figure in the successful battle to end censorship in the English theater, has described the show as having been designed to provide an evening of "elegant erotica." Since its initial preview on May 13, it has become the season's most-talked-about show in theater circles. Literary Contributors The revue is made up of material contributed by Samuel Becket, Jules Feiffer, Tennessee Williams, John Lennon and Bruce Jay Friedman, and the cast of five men and five women perform nude much of the evening. In addition, there are scenes simulating the heterosexual sex act, simulated masturbation, a scene between two Lesbians and a sprinkling of Krafft-Ebing. Like "Che!" the show is another manifestation of the "new freedom" in the arts and potentially is a test of whether the stage may enjoy the same liberty in displaying explicit sex as is being accorded to films and novels. Mr. Elkins, whose last production in New York was the 1964 musical "Golden Boy," in which a black man (Sammy Davis) made love to a white girl (Paula Wayne), refuses to regard himself as an innovator.

Discussing his reasons for inviting members of city departments to see "Oh! Calcutta!" he observed: "I am not looking for a confrontation. We are not trying to make a revolution. I am simply trying to produce an entertainment in the erotic area in the best possible taste. We do not wish to offend, we want to amuse and we're looking for all the advice we can get." As a further indication of caution, the producer said he, the director, Jacques Levy, and others connected with the production had been sitting in various sections of the theater on the alert to audience reaction. On houseboards in front of the theater the production warns that it is recommended for mature audiences only. It is believed that a ban is in effect on the type of photos that may be sent to the press for publicity purposes. Whether these precautions will keep "Oh! Calcutta!" from involvement with legal procedures is not certain. "There's always the risk of trouble," Mr. Elkins said, adding that when he produced "Golden Boy" there were complaints because of the interracial relationship. "If I were afraid of trouble," he continued, "I'd be selling cars." Of one fact, however, Mr. Elkins apparently may be reasonably certain.

The Police Department is not likely to act unless ordered to do so. A spokesman for the department, who declined to be identified, said: "There is one thing I would like to make clear. The police do not go around closing shows. Contrary to popular opinion there is no police censorship. The only practical legal function performed by the police is the physical serving of a warrant in making an arrest ordered by the court." Complaints about the violation of public morals are initiated from different sources--ordinary citizens, church groups and others. Aside from telephone calls, people write to the District Attorney's Office, to the Mayor's office and to the police. In the Case of "Che!" a churchman complained to the police. Presumably the matter was turned over to the Police Department's Public Morals Law Enforcement Division, or public morals squad, which checked on complaints. An individual then may make a complaint or recommendation to the District Attorney's Office. Judge Saw Show Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine made the complaint against "Che!" Arrangements were made with the District Attorney's office for the police to appear before a judge to get warrants for arrest. Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Conboy then accompanied Judge Amos A. Basel of Criminal Court to a performance.

Afterward, the Judge signed the arrest warrants. "Che!" by Lennox Raphael, a 29-year-old native of Trinidad, purports to symbolize the contest between the United States and worldwide revolutionary movements. It assertedly depicts symbolically the last hours of Che Guevara, the Cuban guerilla leader. In it, performers appeared in the nude, devoting more time to the act of sex and dealing with it in greater detail than had been seen on a public stage here. In addition to graphic, though simulated scenes of sexual intercourse, there were a number of homosexual and other unorthodox sexual acts. The cast and crew were charged with consensual sodomy, public lewdness, obscenity and conspiracy to commit such acts under the state penal code. The case is pending. Meanwhile, the show is playing but the cast is fully clothed. Fathoms from Anywhere - A Samuel Beckett Centenary Exhibition Richard Aldington (1892-1962) British writer and critic. Along with Nancy Cunard, Aldington sponsored a poetry contest in 1930 for a poem of not more than 100 lines on the subject of time.

Beckett’s “Whoroscope” won the £10 prize and was published by Cunard’s Hours Press. Avigdor Arikha (b. 1929) Romanian-born Israeli artist. Arikha moved to Paris after fighting in Israel’s War of Independence. Beckett, an avid supporter of the visual arts, became his close friend and patron around the time he was writing Fin de partie. Sylvia Beach (1887-1962) American expatriate publisher and proprietor of the Paris bookshop Shakespeare and Company. In 1929, Beach published, through Shakespeare and Company, Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress, a volume of critical essays on Joyce’s “Work in Progress.” Beckett’s “Dante . . . Bruno . Vico . . Joyce,” his first published work, appeared as the first article in the book. Roger Blin (1907-1984) French actor and director active in the Paris avant-garde theatre. Tristan Tzara, a Beckett admirer, originally brought the text of En attendant Godot to Blin’s attention.

Blin produced the premiere of Godot at the Théâtre de Babylone in Paris on 5 January 1953. Richard Church (1893-1972) British writer and editor. After reading the typescript of Murphy, Church urged Chatto & Windus to continue publishing Beckett. Courmayeur A small Italian village at the foot of Mont Blanc. Beckett completed the penultimate draft of his short prose piece “Ceiling” here in July 1981. Henry Crowder (1890-1955) American musician and composer. Henry-Music, published by Nancy Cunard’s Hours Press in 1930, contains Beckett’s poem “From the Only Poet to a Shining Whore,” set to music composed by Crowder. Cunard dedicated her 1934 anthology Negro, to which Beckett contributed translations of eighteen articles, to Henry Crowder. Nancy Cunard (1896-1965) British-born author, editor and publisher.

Between 1928 and 1931, she ran her own publishing company, the Hours Press, from her house in La Chapelle-Réanville, Normandy. After the Press published Beckett’s poem “Whoroscope"—the winner of its poetry contest in 1930—the two began a long-lasting friendship. Her interest in African-American culture led her to publish the collection Negro Anthology in 1934. René Descartes (1596-1650) French philosopher. A Descartes enthusiast, Beckett based his poem “Whoroscope,” his first individually published work, on the philosopher’s life. Europa Press Small press founded and run by George Reavey. As one of its first books, Europa Press brought out—at Beckett’s expense—Echo’s Bones and Other Precipitates in 1935. Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979) American heiress and art collector Peggy Guggenheim fell in with the Parisian avant-garde of the 1920s. In 1938, she launched her first gallery, Guggenheim Jeune, in London.

Beckett appears in her 1946 memoir Out of This Century as the character Oblomov. The Hours Press Small press set up by Nancy Cunard in her farmhouse at La Chapelle-Réanville, in Normandy. Beckett won an Hours Press poetry contest in 1930 with “Whoroscope,” a poem based on the life of René Descartes. Cunard published the anthology Negro, for which Beckett translated nineteen articles, through her Hours Press in 1934. Mary Manning Howe (1905-1999) Irish-born actress and playwright and childhood friend of Beckett. For a production of her play Youth’s the Season at Dublin’s Gate Theatre, Beckett suggested many major changes, even creating a character named Ego Smith. This experience helped turn Beckett’s interests toward writing drama. Eugene Jolas (1894-1952) American expatriate writer and critic who, along with his wife Maria, founded the revolutionary literary magazine transition. In 1929, transition published Beckett’s first critical essay, “Dante . . . Bruno . Vico . .

Joyce,” and first piece of fiction, “Assumption." James Joyce (1882-1941) Irish expatriate writer. After moving to Paris to take the position of lecteur at the Ecole Normale Supérieur, Beckett fell in with Joyce’s circle, even working as amanuensis and translator on “Work in Progress” (later known as Finnegans Wake). Joyce exerted a tremendous influence on Beckett’s work; Beckett’s first published work, “Dante . . . Bruno . Vico . . Joyce,” was the lead essay in the critical volume Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress. Jack MacGowran (1918-1973) Irish actor and close friend of Beckett. The two met in 1957, during the BBC broadcast of All That Fall. Beckett wrote Embers and Eh Joe especially for MacGowran. Thomas MacGreevy (1896-1967) Irish poet and critic.

The fiercely patriotic MacGreevy preceded Beckett in the post of lecteur d'anglais at the École Normale Supérieure and was popular among the Parisian avant-garde of the late 1920s. When Beckett arrived in Paris, MacGreevy introduced him to his circle of friends, which included James Joyce, Richard Aldington, and Nancy Cunard. Marcel Mihalovici (1898-1985) Romanian-born French composer. Mihalovici, with Beckett’s cooperation, created a chamber opera of Krapp’s Last Tape in 1961 and, in 1968, scored Beckett’s radio play Cascando. Alfred Péron (d. 1945) Beckett’s close friend and collaborator on the translation of James Joyce’s Anna Livia Plurabelle. Beckett and Péron met in Dublin in 1926, when Péron arrived at Trinity College as an exchange lecturer from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. The elegant Péron wielded a strong influence on Beckett, stimulating his interest in literature and the arts as well as his desire to return to Paris.

Péron and his wife Mania were instrumental in Beckett’s involvement in the French Resistance, for which he earned Croix de Guerre in 1945. Péron, arrested by the Gestapo in August 1942 and eventually sent to Mathausen, died shortly after the camp’s liberation in 1945. Maya “Mania” Lézine Péron Russian-born wife of Alfred Péron. Both she and her husband recruited Beckett into the Resistance during the Second World War. After Alfred’s death in 1945, she remained close to Beckett, often assisting him with revisions of his work. Robert Pinget (1919-1997) Swiss-born French author. In 1957, Pinget translated Beckett’s radio play All That Fall into French. Pinget’s radio play La Manivelle, the text of which Beckett translated as The Old Tune, was performed with Beckett’s La Dernière bande at the Théâtre Récamier in Paris. Marcel Proust (1871-1922) French novelist and author of A la recherche du temps perdu.

Beckett’s book-length critical study Proust (1931) represents the author’s first attempt to codify his own literary views. Herbert Read (1893-1968) British critic, poet, editor, and publisher. On Read’s recommendations, the manuscript of Murphy was finally accepted by Routledge. George Reavey (1907-1976) Irish poet, publisher, and translator. Reavey worked out of The European Literary Bureau, a small literary agency, and, along with it, juggled an even more modest publishing operation named Europa Press. He was instrumental in placing Murphy with Routledge and, later, tireless in his efforts to find a taker for Watt. Reavey sold his literary agency before World War II but continued his efforts on Beckett’s behalf in the immediate postwar years. Dr. Jacob “Jake” Schwartz A Brooklyn dentist-turned-London book dealer to whom Beckett sold many of the manuscripts, typescripts, and first editions now at the Ransom Center. Beckett referred to Schwartz as “The Great Extractor." Shakespeare and Company Sylvia Beach’s Parisian bookshop and lending library.

Shakespeare and Company faced, across the lower end of the Rue de l'Odéon, Adrienne Monnier’s Maison des Amis des Livres. Beckett frequented both shops during his early days in Paris. transition Paris-based literary quarterly founded by Eugene and Maria Jolas that published installments of James Joyce’s “Work in Progress.” In 1929, transition published Beckett’s first critical essay, “Dante . . . Bruno . Vico . . Joyce,” and first piece of fiction, “Assumption." Kenneth Tynan (1927-1980) British theater critic and producer. Beckett submitted his forty-second piece Breath for performance in Tynan’s erotic revue Oh! Calcutta! in 1969. After Tynan made unauthorized changes to the text, including the addition of the phrase “including naked people” to Beckett’s first stage direction “Faint light on stage littered with miscellaneous rubbish,” Beckett refused to allow Breath in the London production. Tristan Tzara (1896-1963) Romanian-born French author and proponent of Dadaism.

An admirer of Beckett’s works, he persuaded the actor and producer Roger Blin to read the manuscript of En attendant Godot. Ussy-sur-Marne French village located about thirty miles outside Paris. In 1953, using money left to him by his mother, Beckett had a simple country house built near here. In contrast to the more hectic speed of life in Paris, Ussy provided Beckett the quiet and solitude he needed for contemplation and writing. Geer van Velde (1898-1977) Dutch painter and friend of Beckett. Peggy Guggenheim, who introduced Beckett to van Velde, exhibited his works in his first one-man show at Guggenheim Jeune in 1939. For more information, see: Bair, Deidre. Samuel Beckett: A Biography. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1978. Knowlson, James. Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Gale Literary Databases

Question: Which theatre critic devised and produced the erotic revue ‘Oh! Calcutta!’ in 1969?
Answer: Kenneth Tynan