John Arden: The Promise Unfulfilled

• Published in: Modern drama 1978-03, Vol.21 (1), p.47-58
• Main Author: Clinton, Craig
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0026-7694; 1712-5286
• DOI: 10.3138/md.21.1.47

IT WOULD BE EUPHEMISTIC to state that the public is not wild about the plays of John Arden. Despite this situation, his achievements have not been overlooked by the critics. From the beginning of his career, a number of partisans actively championed Arden's cause. He was lauded for returning a freshness and vigor to the theatre that had long been absent; indeed, certain critics grew breathless in their rapture over the playwright's virtues. In 1967 the reviewer for The Nation described the author's gifts as "the vigor and wealth of his language, the poetic nature of his vision, the high seriousness of his concerns, and the variety of his imagination -qualities which are informed by his profound education and moral largess." This ebullient praise was by no means isolated; Arden has never lacked admirers, and in the mid-sixties Simon Trussler wrote in Encore: "Arden remains the most consistently impressive of our contemporary dramatists, and the one whose work seems most likely to be sustained and fruitful."