Page 342 - DENG403_BRITISH_DRAMA

British Drama

Notes effective scene. Dermot McNamara as Mr Bryant and Bonnie Gallup, Fred Sanders and Brian
Drillinger as the younger generation are more convincing as not-too-bright people resisting any
changes in their narrow lives. Just sitting awkwardly side by side on a couch, dressed in their blue-
suit best, their white socks on display, Mr Sanders and Mr Drillinger are plainly men who would be
more comfortable out with the livestock. Roger DeKoven gets every bit of juice out of the role of a
dying neighbor whose lusty impulses have not entirely subsided and is disgusted with the lifeless
resignation he sees all about him. He seems to sense that the prospect that society’s trap may yet be
broken by a new generation rides with Beatie. Mr Wesker and Miss Spano between them give reason
for hope.

Self Assessment

Multiple Choice Questions:
1. Which of the following is not true about Roots?
(a) It was a comedy of menace
(b) Nealla Spano develops her portrayal of Beatie carefully
(c) It is part of the Wesker trilogy
(d) The play opens at a ramshackle house in Norfolk.
2. Who is focused in the play Roots?
(a) Nealla Spano (b) Beatie
(c) Gloria Barret (d) Bonnie Gallup.
Fill in the blanks:
3. The production of the play Roots at the Jewish Repertory Theatre is intelligent, if not ...... .
4. If Mr Wesker says too little in ......, he says too much in Act III.
State whether the following statements are true or false:
5. Roots is part of the Wesker trilogy and is, by consensus, among the playwright’s best works.
6. Arnold Wesker’s achievement in Roots is to show the Bryants simultaneously as individuals,
as a family and as victims of an economic and political system.
7. Gloria Barret as Mrs Bryant comes on rather more stylishly than her words or her condition
allow.

31.2 Summary

• The play Roots opens at a rather ramshackle house in Norfolk where there is no water laid on,
nor electricity, nor gas. Everything rambles and the furniture is cheap and old. If it is untidy
it is because there is a child in the house and there are few amenities, so that the mother is too
over-worked to take much care.
• An assortment of clobber lies around: papers and washing, coats and basins, a tin wash-tub
with shirts and underwear to be cleaned, tilly lamps and primus stoves.
• Two weeks later it is Saturday, the day Ronnie is to arrive. One of the walls of the kitchen is
now pushed aside and the front room is revealed. It is low-ceilinged, and has dark brown
wooden beams.
• It is three in the afternoon, the weather is cloudy—it has been raining and is likely to start
again. On the table is a spread of food (none of this will be eaten). There are cakes and biscuits
on plates and glass stands. Bread and butter, butter in a dish, tomatoes, cheese, jars of pickled
onions, sausage rolls, dishes of tinned fruit—it is a spread!

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