John Arden
John Arden ( October 26, 1930 in Barnsley , West Riding of Yorkshire , England - March 28, 2012 in Galway , Ireland ) was a British writer best known as a playwright and radio play writer . Many of his subjects relate to the Irish-British history of the 20th century.
Life
Arden was born in Yorkshire in 1930 . He attended a traditional high school in Sedbergh, Cumbria , and then King's College at the University of Cambridge and the Edinburgh College of Art in Edinburgh , where he studied architecture .
Arden first drew literary attention in 1956 with the radio play The Life of Man . His play Serjeant Musgrave's Dance from 1959 - in the tradition of Brecht's Epic Theater - made Arden internationally known. His other works also show the influence of Brecht, with his entire, extensive dramatic oeuvre characterized by protest against imperialism , against the British presence in Northern Ireland and against the military-industrial complex . Many of his socially critical pieces were written together with his wife Margaretta D'Arcy (* 1934), with whom he had been married since 1957, had five sons and repeatedly appeared in public in protest against the theater establishment in Great Britain.
In 1961 Arden was one of the founding members of the British anti-war and anti-nuclear group Committee of 100 , initiated by Bertrand Russell . In Ireland , where Arden had lived with his wife in Galway since 1971 , he was temporarily a member of the Sinn Féin . As a staunch defender of civil rights , Arden was extremely critical of British government counter-terrorism legislation . B. 2007 in his radio play The Scam was expressed.
In addition to the radio plays and his dramatic work, Arden also wrote four novels, of which Silence Among the Weapons was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 1982 , as well as a number of short stories .
Works (selection)
Pieces
(For the complete list see web links)
- 1955: All Fall Down
- 1958: Live Like Pigs
- 1959: Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, An Un-historical Parable
- 1960: The Business Of Good Government - with Margaretta D'Arcy
- 1963: The Workhouse Donkey
- 1964: Armstrong's Last Goodnight
- 1965: Left-Handed Liberty
- 1972: The Ballygombeen Bequests - with Margaretta D'Arcy
- 1972: The Island of the Mighty - with Margaretta D'Arcy
- 1975: The Non-Stop Connolly Show (26-hour cycle around James Connolly )
- 1978: Vandaleur's Folly - with Margaretta D'Arcy
- 1982: The Little Gray Home in the West
Radio plays
- 1956: The Life of Man
- 1988: Whose Is the Kingdom? (Series)
- 2007: The Scam
Novels
- 1982: Silence Among the Weapons
- 1988: Books of Bale. A Fiction of History - about John Bale (1495–1563)
- 1991: Cogs Tyrannic
- 1995: Jack Juggler and the Emperor's Whore
Short stories
- 2003: The Stealing Steps
- 2010: Gallows and Other Tales of Suspicion and Obsession
Essays
- 1978: To Present the Pretense (essay collection)
Web links
- Literature by and about John Arden in the catalog of the German National Library
- John Arden in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- John Arden in nndb (English)
- Complete list of Arden's pieces on doollee.com (accessed January 21, 2009)
Individual evidence
- ↑ John Arden obituary | Stage | The Guardian. In: guardian.co.uk. Retrieved March 30, 2012 .
- ↑ John Arden. (No longer available online.) In: Answers.com. Formerly in the original ; accessed on April 3, 2018 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ↑ Political playwright who never wavered , The Irish Times , March 31, 2012 (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Arden, John |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British novelist and playwright |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 26, 1930 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Barnsley , West Riding of Yorkshire |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 28, 2012 |
| Place of death | Galway |