Sir Arnold Wesker (24 May 1932 – 12 April 2016) was an

English drama Drama was introduced to Britain from Europe by the Romans, and auditoriums were constructed across the country for this purpose. Medieval period By the medieval period, the mummers' plays had developed, a form of early street theatre associ ...

tist. 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 other assorted writings. His plays have been translated into 20 languages, and performed worldwide.

Early life

Wesker was born in

Stepney Stepney is an area in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. Stepney is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name was applied to ...

, London, in 1932, the son of Leah (née Cecile Leah Perlmutter), a cook, and Joseph Wesker, a tailor's machinist and active communist. Arnold Wesker was delivered by Samuel Sacks, father of neurologist

Oliver Sacks Oliver Wolf Sacks (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurology, neurologist, Natural history, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. Born in London, Sacks received his medical degree in 1958 from The Queen's College, Oxford ...

. He attended a Jewish Infants School in

Whitechapel Whitechapel () is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough tow ...

. His education was then fragmented during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He was briefly evacuated to Ely,

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

, before returning to London where he attended Dean Street School during

the Blitz The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War. Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a co ...

. He then returned to live with his parents who had moved to a council flat in Hackney, East London, where he attended Northwold Road School. He then attended Upton House Central School, Hackney, from 1943. This was a school where emphasis was placed on teaching office skills, including typing, to bright boys who however had not been selected for

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

places. He was then evacuated again to

Llantrisant Llantrisant (; "Parish of the Three Saints") is a town and community in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. It lies within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, on the River Ely and the Afon Clun. The three saints of the t ...

South Wales South Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the Historic counties of Wales, historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire ( ...

.An education in the life of Arnold Wesker at ''The Independent''
Retrieved 13 April 2016 He was accepted into the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...

but could not afford to take up his place there. Later, he served for two years in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

, and then went on to work as cook, furniture maker, and bookseller. After saving up enough money, he went to study at the London School of Film Technique, now known as the

London Film School London Film School (LFS) is a film school in London, United Kingdom, and is situated in Covent Garden, London, neighbouring Soho, a hub of the UK film industry. It is the oldest film school in the UK.

Career

His inspiration for the 1957 play '' The Kitchen'', which was later made into a film, came when he was working at the Bell Hotel in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

. It was while working here that he met his future wife Dusty. Wesker's plays have dealt with themes including self-discovery, love, confronting death and political disillusion. ''

Chicken Soup with Barley ''Chicken Soup with Barley'' is a 1956 play by British playwright Arnold Wesker. It is the first of the 'Wesker trilogy' – being followed by ''Roots'' and '' I'm Talking about Jerusalem'' – and was first performed on stage in 1958 at the B ...

'' (1958) went out to the regions. Rather than opening in the West End, its premiere was seen at the Coventry Theatre, a locale which typified Wesker's political views as an ' angry young man'. Wesker's play ''

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 focusin ...

'' (1959) was a kitchen sink drama about a girl, Beatie Bryant, who returns after three years of stay in London to her farming family home in Norfolk and struggles to voice herself. Critics commended the "emotional authenticity" brought out in the play. ''Roots'', ''The Kitchen'', and ''Their Very Own and Golden City'' were staged by the English Stage Company at 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 West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opene ...

under the management of

George Devine George Alexander Cassady Devine (20 November 1910 – 20 January 1966) was an English theatrical manager, director, teacher, and actor based in London from the early 1930s until his death. He also worked in TV and film. Early life and education ...

and later William Gaskill. Wesker's 1962 play "Chips With Everything" shows class attitudes at the time by examining the life of an Army corporal.

Nuclear disarmament

Wesker joined with enthusiasm the Royal Court group on the

Aldermaston March The Aldermaston marches were anti-nuclear weapons demonstrations in the 1950s and 1960s, taking place on Easter weekend between the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire, England, and London, over a distance of fifty- ...

in 1959. Another of the Royal Court contingent,

Lindsay Anderson Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994) was a British feature-film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and of the British New Wave. He is most widely remembered fo ...

, made a short documentary film (''March to Aldermaston'') about the event. He was an active member of the Committee of 100 and, with other prominent members, was jailed in 1961 for his part in its campaign of mass nonviolent resistance to nuclear weapons.

Centre 42

After his stay in prison in 1961, Wesker made a full-time commitment to become the leader of an initiative that had arisen from Resolution 42 of the 1960

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union center, national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions that collectively represent most unionised workers in England and Wales. There are 48 affiliated unions with a total of ...

, concerning the importance of arts in the community. The Centre 42 group of artists, writers, actors and musicians, founded at the Bristol Trades Union Festival of 1962, had taken their name from Resolution 42 passed at the 1960 TUC Congress. Centre 42 was initially a touring festival aimed at devolving art and culture from London to the other main working class towns of Britain, moving to the Roundhouse in 1964. The project to establish a permanent arts centre struggled through subsequent years, because its funding was limited; Wesker fictionalised it in his play ''Their Very Own and Golden City'' (1966). Wesker dissolved the project formally in 1970, although The Roundhouse did open eventually as a permanent arts centre in 2006.

Writers & Readers Publishing Cooperative

Wesker co-founded, in 1974, the Writers & Readers Publishing Cooperative Ltd, with a group of writers that included

John Berger John Peter Berger ( ; 5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017) was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel '' G.'' won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism '' Ways of Seeing'', written as an accompaniment to t ...

, Lisa Appignanesi, Richard Appignanesi, Chris Searle and Glenn Thompson.

Later works

''The Journalists'' (1972) was commissioned by the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...

and researched at ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' at a time it when was edited by

Harold Evans Sir Harold Matthew Evans (28 June 192823 September 2020) was a British-American journalist and writer. In his career in his native Britain, he was editor of ''The Sunday Times'' from 1967 to 1981, and its sister title ''The Times'' for a year f ...

. The RSC's literary manager Ronald Bryden thought it would be "the play of the decade" and it was scheduled to be directed by David Jones. The actors in that year's RSC company refused to perform it, Wesker said, because they were under the influence of the Workers Revolutionary Party. (The WRP was not founded until 1973, but its forerunner, the Socialist Labour League had many sympathisers in the RSC.) Wesker wrote in 2004 that he had also "committed the politically incorrect crime of creating Tory ministers who were intelligent rather than caricatures". ''The Journalists'' received its American premiere at th
Back Alley Theatre
in Los Angeles in 1979. It was directed by Laura Zucker and produced by

Allan Miller Allan Miller (born February 14, 1929) is an American stage, film, and television actor. Biography Miller served in the U.S. Army after World War II during the occupation of Japan.Miller, Daryl H"Stages of Development" ''Los Angeles Times'' ...

. Wesker's play '' The Merchant'' (1976), which he later renamed ''

Shylock Shylock () is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play '' The Merchant of Venice'' ( 1600). A Venetian Jewish moneylender, Shylock is the play's principal villain. His defeat and forced conversion to Christianity form the climax ...

'', uses the same three stories used by Shakespeare for his play ''

The Merchant of Venice ''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan taken out on behalf of his dear friend, Bassanio, and provided by a ...

''. In this retelling, Shylock and Antonio are fast friends bound by a common love of books, culture and a disdain for the crass antisemitism of the Christian community's laws. They make the bond in defiant mockery of the Christian establishment, never anticipating that the bond might become forfeit. When it does, the play argues, Shylock must carry through on the letter of the law or jeopardise the scant legal security of the entire Jewish community. He is, therefore, quite as grateful as Antonio when Portia, as in Shakespeare's play, shows the legal way out. The play received its American premiere on 16 November 1977 at New York's Plymouth Theatre with Joseph Leon as Shylock,

Marian Seldes Marian Hall Seldes (August 23, 1928 – October 6, 2014) was an American actress. A five-time Tony Award nominee, she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for '' A Delicate Balance'' in 1967, and received subsequent nominations ...

as Shylock's sister Rivka and Roberta Maxwell as Portia. This production had a challenging history in previews on the road, culminating (after the first night out of town in Philadelphia on 8 September 1977) with the death of the exuberant Broadway star

Zero Mostel Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel (February 28, 1915 – September 8, 1977) was an American actor, comedian, and singer. He is best known for his portrayal of comic characters including Tevye on stage in ''Fiddler on the Roof'', Pseudolus on stage and o ...

, who was initially cast as Shylock. Wesker wrote a book, ''The Birth of Shylock and the Death of Zero Mostel'', chronicling the entire process from initial submissions and rejections of the play through to rehearsals, Zero's death, and the disappointment of the critical reception for the Broadway opening. The book reveals much about the playwright's relationship to director John Dexter (who had been the earliest, near-familial interpreter of Wesker's works), to criticism, to casting, and to the ephemeral process of collaboration through which the text of any play must pass. In 2005, he published his first novel, ''Honey'', which recounted the experiences of Beatie Bryant, the heroine of his earlier play ''Roots''. The novel broke from the previously established chronology. ''Roots'' was set in the early 1960s and Beatie is 22; but in ''Honey'' she has only aged three years yet the action has been transplanted into the 1980s. Other oddities are that the timeframe includes the Rushdie affair and

John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British retired politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. Following his defeat to Ton ...

's fall as recent events and yet the action is concerned with the dotcom boom. In 2008, Wesker published his first collection of poetry, ''All Things Tire of Themselves'' (Flambard Press). The collection dates back many years and represents what he considered his best and most characteristic poems. He was a member of the editorial advisory board of ''

Jewish Renaissance ''Jewish Renaissance'' is a quarterly cultural magazine, founded in October 2001, covering Jewish culture, arts and communities in Britain and beyond. It is edited by Rebecca Taylor, a former News Editor at '' Time Out London''. Scope and con ...

'' magazine. He was a patron of the Shakespeare Schools Festival, a charity that enables school children across the UK to perform Shakespeare in professional theatres. He was the castaway on ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight audio recordin ...

'',

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

, in 1966 and again in 2006.

Personal life

Wesker married Doreen Bicker in 1958, after meeting at a hotel in Norwich where Wesker was working as a kitchen porter and Doreen as a chambermaid. He gave her the nickname of "Dusty", because of her "gold-dust" hair; an

Arts Council An arts council is a government or private non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts; mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing arts events. They often operate at arms-length from the government to prevent pol ...

bursary of £500 covered the cost of their marriage. The character Beatie, in the "Wesker trilogy" of plays, was inspired by her. The couple had three children: Lindsay, Tanya and Daniel. Lindsay was named after director

. Tanya died in 2012. Wesker also had another daughter Elsa, with Swedish journalist, Disa Håstad. Wesker died on 12 April 2016 at the

Royal Sussex County Hospital The Royal Sussex County Hospital is an acute teaching hospital in Brighton, England. Together with the Princess Royal Hospital, it is administered by the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. The services provided at the hospital inc ...

in Brighton. He was suffering from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

Awards and honours

Wesker received numerous awards throughout his career. In 1958 he received grant of 300 for the play ''Chicken Soup'' from the

Arts Council of Great Britain The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council (l ...

. He used the money to marry Bicker. The following year he won the ''Evening Standard'' Theatre Award in the "Most Promising Playwright" category. He was presented with the Italian Marzotto Prize (a cash award of £3000) in 1964 for ''Their Very Own and Golden City'', and the Spanish Best Foreign Play Award in 1979. He became a fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

in 1985 and was presented with the Goldie Award in 1987. For his "distinguished service to theatre" he was honoured with the Last Frontier Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in the

2006 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2006 in some Commonwealth realms were announced (on 31 December 2005) in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Grenada, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, and Saint Christopher and Nevis to c ...

. In December 2021 a plaque in Wesker's memory was installed at his former primary school, Northwold Road, Hackney, London, by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation.

Works

The following list is drawn from Arnold Wesker's official website.

Plays

*'' The Kitchen'', 1957 *''

'', 1958 *''

'', 1959 *'' I'm Talking about Jerusalem'', 1960 *''Menace'', 1961 (for television) *'' Chips with Everything'', 1962 *''The Nottingham Captain'', 1962 *''Four Seasons'', 1965 *''Their Very Own and Golden City'', 1966 *'' The Friends'', 1970 *''The Old Ones'', 1970 *''The Journalists'', 1972 *''The Wedding Feast'', 1974 *'' The Merchant'', 1976 *''Love Letters on Blue Paper'', 1976 *''One More Ride On The Merry-Go-Round'', 1978 *''Phoenix'', 1980 *''Caritas'', 1980 *''Voices on the Wind'', 1980 *''Breakfast'', 1981 *''Sullied Hand'', 1981 *''Four Portraits – Of Mothers'', 1982 *''Annie Wobbler'', 1982 *''Yardsale'', 1983 *''Cinders'', 1983 *''Whatever Happened to Betty Lemon?'', 1986 *''When God Wanted a Son'', 1986 *''Lady Othello'', 1987 *''Little Old Lady & Shoeshine'', 1987 *''Badenheim 1939'', 1987 *''Shoeshine'', 1987 *''The Mistress'', 1988 *''Beorhtel's Hill'', 1988 (community play for

Basildon Basildon ( ) is a town in Borough of Basildon, the borough of the same name, in the county of Essex, England. It had a recorded population of 115,955 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census. In 1931, the town had a population of 1,159. ...

) *''Men Die Women Survive'', 1990 *''Letter To A Daughter'', 1990 *''Blood Libel'', 1991 *''Wild Spring'', 1992 *''Bluey'', 1993 *''The Confession'', 1993 *''Circles of Perception'', 1996 *''Break, My Heart'', 1997 *''Denial'', 1997 *''Barabbas'', 2000 *''The Kitchen Musical'', 2000 *''Groupie'', 2001 *''Longitude'', 2002 *''The Rocking Horse'', 2008 (commissioned by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

World Service) *''Joy and Tyranny'', 2011

Fiction

*''Six Sundays in January'',

Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a British publishing firm headquartered in London and founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard (1893–1968) set up the publishing house in ...

, 1971 *''Love Letters on Blue Paper'', Jonathan Cape, 1974 *''Said the Old Man to the Young Man'', Jonathan Cape, 1978 *''Fatlips'', Writers and Readers

Harper & Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins, based in New York City. Founded in New York in 1817 by James Harper and his brother John, the company operated as J. & J. Harper until 1833, when ...

, 1978 *''The King's Daughters'',

Quartet Books Naim Ibrahim Attallah (, 1 May 1931 – 2 February 2021) was a Palestinian-British businessman and writer. He was the publisher of Quartet Books and the owner of The Women's Press. The Palestinian-born entrepreneur was described by ''The Guar ...

, 1998 *''Honey'',

Pocket Books Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books. History Pocket Books produced the first Paperback#Mass market paperback, mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and ...

, 2006

Non-fiction

*''Distinctions'', 1985 (collection of essays) *''Fears of Fragmentation'', Jonathan Cape, 1971 *''Say Goodbye You May Never See Them Again'', Jonathan Cape, 1974 *''Journey Into Journalism'', Writers & Readers, 1977 *''The Dusty Wesker Cook Book'', Chatto & Windus, 1987 *''As Much as I Dare'', Century Random House, 1994 (Autobiography) *''The Birth of Shylock and the Death of Zero Mostel'', Quartet Books, 1997 *''Wesker On Theatre'', 2010 (collection of essays) *''Ambivalences'', Oberon Books, 2011

Notes

References

External links

*
Arnold Wesker Papers
at the

*
"Arnold's Choice"
Interview with Arnold Wesker, by Kirsty Young. ''

''. Broadcast on ''

'', 17 December 2006; repeated 22 December 2006.
Interview with Arnold Wesker
– British Library sound recording
"Sir Arnold Wesker, British playwright, dies aged 83"
BBC News, 13 April 2016 *Chris, Moncrieff
"Obituary: Sir Arnold Wesker, playwright"
''The Scotsman'', 13 April 2016 *Archival material at
"ir Arnold Wesker"

The Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, electe ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wesker, Arnold 1932 births 2016 deaths 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights 21st-century English dramatists and playwrights English male dramatists and playwrights Jewish dramatists and playwrights Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Knights Bachelor People educated at University College School People from Stepney Jewish English writers People with Parkinson's disease 20th-century English male writers 21st-century English male writers Alumni of the London Film School