'Kitchen Sink' is the
term given to a particular type of drama, which focuses primarily on the
trials and experiences of the urban working class. It stems from the wider
'Kitchen Sink' movement of social realism in art.
Kitchen
sink realism (or kitchen sink drama) is a British
cultural movement that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in
theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose protagonists usually
could be described as "angry young men" who were disillusioned with
modern society. It used a style of social realism, which depicted the
domestic situations of working class Britons, living in cramped
rented accommodation and spending their off-hours drinking in grimy pubs,
to explore controversial social and political issues ranging from abortion to
homelessness. The harsh, realistic style contrasted sharply with
the escapism of the previous generation's so-called "well-made
plays".
Perhaps
the first, and most notable, characteristic of these Kitchen Sink dramas was
the way in which they advanced a particular social message or ideology. This
ideology was most often leftist. The settings were almost always working class.
The previous trend in Victorian theater had been to depict the lives of the
wealthy members of the ruling classes. These classes of people were often
conservative in their politics and their ideologies. This was not the case for
Kitchen Sink theater. The Kitchen Sink drama sought, instead, to bring the real
lives and social inequality of ordinary working class people to the stage. The
lives of these people were caught between struggles of power, industry,
politics, and social homogenization.
Another
chief characteristic of the Kitchen Sink drama was the way in which its
characters expressed their unvarnished emotion and dissatisfaction with the
ruling class status quo. This can be seen clearly in the play considered to be
the standard bearer of this Kitchen Sink genre: John Osborne’s Look
Back in Anger. In Osborne’s play, Jimmy Porter plays the role of the
Angry Young Man. He is angry and dissatisfied at a world that offers him no
social opportunities and a dearth of emotion. He longs to live a “real life.”
He feels, however, that the trappings of working class domesticity keep him
from reaching this better existence. His anger and rage are thus channeled
towards those around him. Osborne’s play is a study in how this pent up
frustration and social anger can wreak havoc on the ordinary lives of the
British people.
Some critics have noted the irony in the term
“Kitchen Sink drama.” The domestic world during this time was believed to be
the domain of the feminine. Almost all of the major Kitchen Sink works which
take place in the mid-twentieth century, however, are centered around a
masculine point of view. These plays rarely centered around the emotions and
tribulations of its women characters. The power dynamic between male and female
often assumed to be masculine and is an unexamined critical component in many
of these plays. Women are often assumed to serve the men of their household
and, when conflicts do arise, it is often the man who is portrayed as the
suffering protagonist. Women’s suffering is always a result of the suffering of
the male.
Though
Kitchen Sink dramas gained notoriety in twentieth century British culture for
their unflinching anger and criticism directed towards the social, political,
and economic establishment, the plays were also significant for the way they
depicted the most intimate aspects of domestic life.
So the
play as an embodiment of kitchen sink
realism because The Angry Young Jimmy
Porter as an epitome Kitchen Sink Realism in John Osborne's
"Look Back in Anger" and its relevance in the twenty-first century
society.
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