The Contemporary British History Play by Richard H. Palmer (review)

Book Reviews RICHARD H. PALMER. The Contemporary British History Play. Contributions in Drama and Theatre Studies No. 81. Westport, CT, and London: Greenwood Press 1998. Pp. 272. $65.00. Whose past is it, anyway? Historians try to reconstruct the past from a jigsaw puzzle that has some of its pieces missing, others misshapen, others obscured. Who recorded the observations from which the historian creates a narrative? For whom? With what motive? What was altered, misunderstood, or never recorded? What cultural influences are at work? How is the infonnation refracted through the historian's eyes? History being so subjective, throw in the creative license allowed the playwright and it would seem nearly impossible to decide on the nature of the history play. Some writers have taken on the challenge only to tie themselves into a knot only the most convoluted reasoning can loosen, Richard Palmer's approach in The Contemporary British History Play is refreshing and far more organic: after reviewing other critics' criteria, he admits the futility of defining a "history play," opens the door wide, and admits all British plays that make use of history, beginning in 1959 with Arden's Sergeant Musgrave's Dance. He identifies eight kinds of drama using history, ranging from plays in which the "Characters and situations are largely fictional, but the style of the play mimics that of a play from an earlier period" (8), to one-actor biographies such as Whitemore's Stevie and Breaking the Code, to docudramas aiming for historical accuracy. Thus, Bowen's Florence Nightingale, a psychological study, and Bond's highly fantastical Early Morning, in which Queen Victoria and F10rence are lovers. are two species of the same genre. Having let in all and sundry, Palmer creates order by organizing his material ideologically into six categories: Biographical, Social, Oppositional, Marxist and Socialist, Feminist, and Deconstructionist and Postmodem. Most Modem Drama, 41 (1998) 655 BOOK REVIEWS of these categories are further subdividcd; for example, the subcategories within the chapter on biographical history plays include Psychobiography, which subjects historical figures to psychoanalysis; Domestic Biographies, that is, plays about the private lives of important or celebrated people; and "Mover and Shaker" plays about the men assoeiated with crucial moments in history. (There are women who move and shake, but Palmer reserves discussion of them for the chapter on Feminist history plays. Perhaps the time has come in literary studies to mainstream women and other "others.") In general, these categories are sound, sensible, and well-supported with numerous examples. Palmer has been attending British theatre regularly for thirty-five years, as he states in his Acknowledgements, and his substantial first-hand knowledge of the subject shows. He covers a truly impressive array of plays; one of the strengths of the book is that it brings several lesser-known playwrights into the discussion of contemporary British drama. Shirlee Gee, Peter Whelan, Michael Hastings, Diane Samuels, and others take their places beside Bond, Brenton, Churchill, and Shaffer. Other major English writers of historical drama, such as Peter Barnes (inexplicably ignored by other scholars of the genre), are given their due. The one problematic chapter is that on Deconstructionist and Postmodern history plays. It seems belaboured; the author's observations about how contemporary playwrights use elements of deconstruction and the postmodem are valid, but it is another matter to designate the "deconstructionist" or "postmodem " history play. In fact, he seldom succeeds in doing so, perhaps because theatre has made use of "postmodem" devices - fractured narrative, metatheatre. nonlinear structure. the juxtaposition of disparate art fonns or styles - throughout its existence. Of course contemporary British playwrights have made abundant use of these devices, particularly in history plays, and that is the focus of Palmer's final, and most insightful, chapter, "The Search for a Theatrical Form." In an attempt to draw some conclusions about how history, theatre, and politics intersect, Palmer looks at structure, the theatrical conventions that are pressed into service, and how it all acts upon an audience. There is some overlap with the deconstructionist/postmodern chapter, but here the author theorizes about the work rather than making the work fit a theory. Palmer's style is clear, if on the dry side. Since he...