Reginald Berkeley: Pioneering Modernist Playwright and Political Radio Drama as Agitational Contemporaneity

Abstract

This chapter provides extensive new research arguing that Reginald Berkeley was a modernist and political playwright who founded and pioneered some of the significant developments of the radio play in the 1920s. He wrote the first full-length microphone play that addressed post Great War pacifism and warnings about the future ever published in book form for Armistice Night 1925. The White Château also transferred successfully to West End theatre, but Berkeley had to resist attempts to censor its length and prevent its transmission for political reasons. His next play The Quest of Elizabeth in 1926 had its end censored without its permission because the BBC feared the near grand guignol story of a young girl dying after the tragic deaths of her parents was psychologically too shocking for its listeners. Berkeley went public with his outrage. His next play Machines, while advancing modernist technique and political dramatic writing, was next banned by the BBC in 1927. New research reveals that state theatre censorship by the Lord Chamberlain approved public performance The White Château and The Quest of Elizabeth, but agreed with the BBC that Machines should not receive a license. Berkeley arranged for the play to be performed in the Arts Theatre Club in London and never wrote for the BBC again. What was gained and lost by his public battles over censorship?