The Fool (play)

The Fool: Scenes of Bread and Love is a play by the English playwright Edward Bond.[1] It traces the life of the poet John Clare against the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution, from his roots in rural East Anglia via literary success in London to his final years in a lunatic asylum.[2][3] The play was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in 1975, in a production directed by Peter Gill and featuring a cast including Tom Courtenay, David Troughton and Nigel Terry among others.[4]

The Fool
Paperback first edition: Methuen, 1976
Written byEdward Bond
Date premiered18 November 1975
Place premieredRoyal Court Theatre, London
Original languageEnglish

After a 35-year hiatus, The Fool was revived in the UK in late 2010 as part of the six-play Edward Bond Season at the Cock Tavern Theatre in Kilburn, London.[5] Bond himself directed the production, with Ben Crispin playing the role of John Clare.[6]

Original cast
  • John Clare - Tom Courtenay
  • Miles - David Troughton
  • Darkie - Nigel Terry
  • Lawrence - Mick Ford
  • Patty - Bridget Turner
  • Mary - Caroline Hutchison
  • Lord Milton - Nicholas Selby
  • The Parson - John Normington
  • Lord Milton's Guests - Peter Myers,
    John Boswall,
    Malcolm Ingram,
    Robert Lloyd,
    Shiela Kelley,
    Avril Marsh
  • Wadlow, Lord Milton's Gamekeeper - Roger Hume
  • Hilary, the Assistant Keeper - David Ellison
  • Bob - Roderick Smith
  • Peter - Malcolm Ingram
  • Betty - Shiela Kelley
  • Hamo - Brian Hall
  • Gentlemen - Peter Myers, Robert Lloyd, John Boswall
  • Hicks, a Warder - Tony Rohr
  • Governor - Peter Myers
  • Porter - Ken Gajadhar
  • Jackson - Brian Hall
  • Porter's Backers - Malcolm Ingram, Mick Ford
  • Jackson's Backers - David Troughton, Roger Hume
  • Referee - David Ellison
  • A Boy - Roderick Smith
  • Mrs. Emmerson - Isabel Dean
  • Charles Lamb - Robert Lloyd
  • Mary Lamb - Gillian Martell
  • Admiral Lord Radstock - Bill Fraser
  • Dr. Skrimshtrb - John Boswall
  • Tommy - Tony Rohr
  • Michael - Roger Hume
  • Arny - Brian Hall
  • Napoleon - John Normington
  • A Man in a Straitjacket - Mick Ford
  • An Attendant - David Troughton

Reception

The Spectator's Kenneth Hurren criticized the play and the performance after the Royal Court Theatre premiere, arguing that the work consists of two different plays that "do not so much blend with as disappear into each other" and saying that Courtenay "has a hard time with Clare".[7]

In a 2001 article for The New York Times, Benedict Nightingale described The Fool as "moving".[8] Elizabeth Davis of Kilburn Times wrote, after seeing the 2010 performance directed by Bond, that "the play has powerful moments but the production was overly long (at 2hr 45mins) and, at times, as po-faced as the pompous vicar. Nevertheless, Bond, as ever, creates a memorable and thought-provoking evening."[9] That same year, Mark Ravenhill lauded the play as a "brilliant [...] landmark" work and wrote, "There is no play that more acutely captures the experience of being a writer who is happily snatched up by London literary circles and then just as hastily dispatched".[10]

Pamela McCallum wrote in 2016 that the play "represents a high point of post-war British drama and perhaps can be taken as a site of division between generations in theatre. The following generation—Churchill, Ravenhill, Kane, and Butterworth—foreground, in very different ways, the psychological distortions and devastating brutalities of the contemporary world".[11]

Awards

The Fool won Best Play of 1976 in the Plays and Players London Critics Award.[12]

References
  1. "The Fool - Drama Online". www.dramaonlinelibrary.com.
  2. "Whatever happened to Edward Bond?". The Independent. November 2, 2010.
  3. Spencer, Jenny S.; Spencer, Jane (December 17, 1992). Dramatic Strategies in the Plays of Edward Bond. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521393041 – via Google Books.
  4. Bond, Edward (December 10, 2013). Bond Plays: 3: Bingo; The Fool; The Woman; Stone. A&C Black. ISBN 9781408160909 – via Google Books.
  5. Masters, Tim (October 20, 2010). "Edward Bond: I still get letters written in blood" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  6. Davis, Elizabeth. "Review: The Fool, Cock Tavern Theatre, Kilburn". Kilburn Times.
  7. Hurren, Kenneth (1975-11-29). "REVIEW » 29 Nov 1975 » The Spectator Archive". The Spectator Archive. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  8. Nightingale, Benedict (2001-02-18). "THEATER; An English Playwright With Very Mixed Notices". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  9. Davis, Elizabeth (2010-10-20). "Review: The Fool, Cock Tavern Theatre, Kilburn". Kilburn Times. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  10. Ravenhill, Mark (2010-11-02). "Whatever happened to Edward Bond?". The Independent. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  11. McCallum, Pamela (2016-10-16). "The Politics and Poetics of Contemporary English Tragedy by Sean Carney (review)". University of Toronto Quarterly. 85 (3): 325–326. doi:10.3138/utq.85.3.325. ISSN 1712-5278. S2CID 157470354.
  12. Demling, Ann Marie (1983). "The Use of the Grotesque in the Plays of Edward Bond". LSU Digital Commons.
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