The Plays of David Storey: A Thematic Study by William Hutchings (review)

Book Reviews frustrated desire. Contemporary work of this strength demands careful examination at some distance if we are to see it well. Barker is obscure, extreme, and prolific; his work particularly requires clear and challenging critical treatment. ALAN THOMAS, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO WILLIAM HUTCHINGS. The Plays of David Storey: A Thematic Study. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press 1988. pp. xi, 205. $24.95. As the first full-length work on David Storey's drama, William Hutchings's The Plays ofDavid Storey: A Thematic Study is a significant contribution to scholarship on postwar British drama. Hutchings provides a substantial analysis of each of Storey's plays, with the single exception of his most recent work, the still-unpublished and apparently unobtainable Phoenix, which understandably receives little attention here. The plays are examined in light ofStorey's novels as well as his life, and some discussion ofindividual perfonnances and fihn versions ofa few ofthe plays further augments Hutchings'S study. In addition, of particular value here are Storey's own remarks on the plays, interspersed throughout Hutchings'S text and gleaned, Hutchings tells us, from months ofcorrespondence as well as a lengthy interview, one of the few Storey has ever given. Storey's comments in themselves make this very thorough work worth reading, but there is more to be recommended here. Ofprimary interest to Hutchings is the importance ofritual in Storey's work. Drawing upon anthropological, philosophical, and religious studies as well as Peter Brooks's work and Storey's own plays, Hutchings discusses the place of ritual in our lives and defmes ritual, in Storey's work, as "a patterned, purposeful, and significant (i.e., statusaffirming ) event" (p. 18). Hutchings distinguishes between personal rituals, which help the individual to establish his or her own identity, and collective rituals, which establish the identity of a community. Both types occur in Storey's drama, but the latter tend to be more significant. Storey himself has acknowledged a tendency to write about groups - about the ways in which separate individuals come together, rising above their differences, to fann communities. According to Hutchings, Storey's interest in ritual arises from his concern over what Hutchings calls the "radical desacralization" of society, which has its roots in the industrial revolution. Hutchings notes that, because of this desacralization, because we no longer have a sense of' 'the sacred" and "the holy," , traditional rituals no longer serve the function of uniting individuals. As Hutchings persuasively argues, the burial of the dead in Cromwell, the anniversary dinner in In Celebration, the wedding and reception in The Contractor are all "devalued rituals," rituals that no longer serve their intended purposes, rituals that can no longer bring individuals, in these cases members of families, together in any significant way. Ifunity does occur, it is only for a moment, and disunity finally prevails. But Hutchings shows that it is possible for new nontraditional rituals to replace those that are devalued, and he successfully demonstrates that the workmen in The Contractor and the players in The Book Reviews 457 Changing Room are unified through nontraditional rituals. Hutchings's skillful analysis of the function of ritual in The Changing Room is particularly insightful. He might, however, have funher developed his study by examining possible connections between the depiction of ritual onstage and the ritual aspects of theatre in itself; but otherwise, his work on ritual here is thorough and convincing. Another important aspect ofHutchings's study is what seems to be an attempt to place Storey's work within the context of twentieth-century drama. Although not as complete as his work on ritual, Hutchings's study of Storey's work in light of that of other dramatists does provide us with some important insights. From the beginning, Hutchings makes it clear that Storey has repeatedly denied having been influenced by the work of other dramatists. especially Beckett and Pinter, citing instead the production of his own first play, The Restoration ofArnold Middleton, as his initial inspiration. Nevertheless, there are significant similarities between Storey's work and that of other playwrights. Hutchings briefly compares Storey's Cromwell to Mother Courage, and he suggests a connection between Home and a number of Beckeu's plays...