''Chicken Soup with Barley'' is a 1956 play by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

Arnold Wesker Sir Arnold Wesker (24 May 1932 – 12 April 2016) was an English dramatist. He was the author of 50 plays, four volumes of short stories, two volumes of essays, much journalism and a book on the subject, a children's book, some poetry, and oth ...

. It is the first of the 'Wesker

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part wor ...

' – being followed by ''

Roots A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients. Root or roots may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusing ...

'' and ''I'm Talking About Jerusalem'' – and was first performed on stage in 1958 at the

Belgrade Theatre The Belgrade Theatre is a live performance venue in Coventry, England. It was the first civic theatre to be built in Britain after the Second World War and is now a Grade II listed building. Background Coventry was the fastest growing city in ...

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

, transferring later that year to the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, Englan ...

in London. It is considered to be an important play in the history of post-war British theatre, and one of the few English plays with a sympathetic portrayal of a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

family. The play is split into three acts, each with two scenes. It spans 20 years of the lives of the

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, immigrant Kahn family living in 1936 in London, and traces the downfall of their ideals in a changing world, parallel to the disintegration of the family. The protagonists are the parents, Sarah and Harry, and their children, Ada and Ronnie. They are communists, and Wesker explores how they struggle to maintain their convictions in the face of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...

, and the

1956 Hungarian Revolution The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

. Sarah is an adamant

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

; she is strong, family-minded, honest though bossy; Harry, her husband, is weak, a liar and lacks conviction; Ada is extremely passionate about what she believes in, especially

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

, and, like the others, is also romantic both personally and politically; and finally, Ronnie is a romantic, youthful idealist. The character of Sarah was based on Arnold Wesker's aunt, Sarah Wesker, who was a trade union activist in the East End of London. A major revival, starring

Samantha Spiro Samantha Spiro (born 20 June 1968) is an English actress and singer. She is best known for portraying Barbara Windsor in the stage play ''Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick'' and the television films ''Cor, Blimey!'' and ''Babs'', DI Vivien Frie ...

, was staged at the Royal Court in the summer of 2011.

References

External links

Arnold Wesker discusses ''Chicken Soup with Barley''
on the BBC ''

World Book Club ''World Book Club'' is a radio programme on the BBC World Service. Each edition of the programme, which is broadcast on the first Saturday of the month with repeats into the following Monday, features a famous author discussing one of his or her ...

''
A review
of ''Chicken Soup with Barley''.
''Chicken Soup with Barley''
at the Nottingham Playhouse. Plays by Arnold Wesker 1956 plays {{1950s-play-stub