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Alan Bennett stars in a new production of his own acclaimed satrical comedy, thirty years after its original West End debut. The Headmaster has been at Albion House for fifty years, man and boy. Now he is retiring and takes part in the end-of-year entertainment for the last time. Entitled "Speak For England, Arthur", it weaves together a multi-generational story of England: the glorious era at the turn of the century, when the summers were always golden; the fast-living inter-war years peopled by the Bloomsbury Group; and the growing cynicism of a country going to war twice in so many decades. Tongue-in-cheek, the play-within-a-play prompts an outraged response from the Headmaster, who can only see his beloved standards being mocked. Yet within the parody lies an almost-painful nostalgia for a more peaceful age and the timeless misunderstanding of one generation by another. Clever, funny and poignant, Alan Bennett's masterful play is rightly regarded as a modern classic.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect Plays; Perfect Performances,
By GJ (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Forty Years on: AND A Woman of No Importance (Radio Collection) (Audio CD)
The version of "Forty Years On" presented here is by far and away my favourite version. Sir John Gielgud is perfect as the retiring, slightly doddery Head Master and a young(ish) Alan Bennett is convincing as the junior master, Mr Tempest, who wishes he could put his hands on the choir's parts. Paul Eddington, Norah Nicholson and Dorothy Reynolds provide wonderful performances, as well.It is a complex play, its play and sketches within a play needing some attention to keep up with. It is satirical but affectionate; dripping with nostalgia whilst, at the same time, gently lampooning old institutions and values. "The Breed": those perpetrators of snobbery with violence are dealt with scathingly but the passing of their times, full of certainties and standards seems regretted, although it is necessary. But it was ever thus: in the allegorical school, Albion House, as the Head Master, with his out of date standards ("standards always are out of date - that is what makes them standards") is replaced by the progressive Mr Franklin, so he rightly points out that Franklin, too, will one day be thought stuffy and old-fashioned. The play is dense with jokes and allusions and it is a joy to be able to listen to it again and again on CD: particularly since the various scenes are indexed. There can be few better sources of one-liners, particularly in the Oscar Wilde pastiche, close to the start of the play. Although the recent "History Boys" has been seen as a return to a "school play", "Forty Years On" remains fairly unique for its Englishness, ambitions structure, its humour and its nostalgia. It is a beautiful piece of writing, beautifully performed. The affecting monologue "A Woman of No Importance" at first seems as if it couldn't be further from the revue-like feel and ensemble playing of "Forty Years On" but there are similar themes of nostalgia and a slight sadness. Just as Albion House is now a fairly minor, unimportant Public School, so Margret Schofield is just another ordinary woman. A Woman of No Importance, as the title says, and yet, of course, everyone has their own little impact on the world and is important in their own way. Her ramblings are, of course, quite captivating, like a sort of aging, female Pooter. Patricia Routledge's performance is very sensitive, convincing and affecting and may be the best thing that she has ever done: her Hyacinth Bucket and Vera Small characters are caricatures by comparison. And yet, for all the sadness and sensetivity, this is still a very funny and warm piece in the "Talking Heads" style that would be so successful for Alan Bennett. A double bill to be savoured. Two gems from one of our greatest living playwrights; both superbly realised. The only downside is the way the plays are not each on their own CD, so that if you listen to "A Woman of No Importance" you are rudely jarred at the end by the opening bars of the introduction to "Forty Years On". If you wish to listen to "Forty Years On" you must skip through several tracks to do so and then change discs part way through. This is a distinct irritation and I considered deducting a star. That would be unfair to the playwright and the actors, however: these are essential recordings and the BBC's dodgy formatting cannot alter that.
16 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best bits of material from Alan Bennett,
By A Customer
This review is from: Forty Years on: BBC Radio 4 Full Cast Dramatisation (BBC Radio Collection) (Audio CD)
Alan Bennett is possibly one of the BBC's best narrators. He has written and also narrated this piece with immense feeling and humour. I laughed a lot whilst listening to this and it was not just because of the way he told it. He has written other great pieces such as 'Talking Heads' and has also written about other encouters that have taken place in his life. Along with these other title this is an excellent buy and one you can listen to over and over. Others that you maybe interested in would be 'Alice in wonderland' and others that he has narrated. I must say that Alan has done a great job with this and I am now a Bennet fan.Others you may enjoy: 'Three men in a boat' By Jerome K.Jerome 'The clothes they stood up in' Alan Bennett
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"It's a school play. It's not SUPPOSED to be entertaining!",
By Mary Whipple - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Forty Years on: BBC Radio 4 Full Cast Dramatisation (BBC Radio Collection) (Audio Cassette)
(4.5 stars) The Headmaster of Albion House has no idea, when he utters these words, just how entertaining this school play will be. Entitled _Speak for England, Arthur_, this play within a play is intended to honor the Headmaster, who has announced his retirement and imminent departure after a forty-year career. The play features the faculty, including the new Headmaster, who created and directed it, the Matron, the nurse, and a few of the students, and is intended to remind these (typical) teenagers of the school's traditions. A boys' choir provides musical commentary on the action. Extended vignettes of important events in British history, many of them from war times, provide Bennett with ample opportunity for satire, as the action moves through Edwardian England, the Bloomsbury group, and the two world wars and their aftermath.Nothing is sacred, as Bennett looks backward from his vantage point in 1968, when this play was first produced, to take aim at specific politicians, the Conservatives, the attempts to appease Hitler, the upper classes, traditional religion, hush-hush attitudes toward sexuality, the prejudices and social inequities tolerated in the country, and, ultimately, the values of the past which have changed as times have changed. The new Headmaster, whose values are as liberal as the former Headmaster's are conservative, uses the school play to reflect his own (and Bennett's) point of view, and as scenes change and the faculty converses, the viewer/reader/listener--and the old Headmaster--quickly see how much values have changed. The Headmaster feels that the values by which he has lived are being mocked, while the students and new Headmaster feel that the old Headmaster is out of touch, however well-meaning and upright. Forty Years On, Alan Bennett's first full-length play, has an enormous scope, which is both its glory and its limitation. Bennett satirizes a whole panoply of subjects as he explores seventy years of British social and political history. The satire is pointed--and hilarious--and the reactions of the faculty, students, and Headmaster are indicative of generational changes. The scope is so broad, however, that the impact is diluted and there is no grand climax, other than the Headmaster's reaction, to bring together all facets of the play. The fact that the vignettes do not come in chronological order is also distracting. The play is delightful in its humor, however, and relevant even now, forty years after it was first produced--a sensational debut for a man who has become one of England's most successful and prolific dramatists. n Mary Whipple The Uncommon Reader: A Novella The History Boys: A Play The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett (BBC Radio Collection Audio Cassette) An Englishman Abroad: Starring Michael Gambon and Penelope Wilton (BBC Radio Collection) The Complete Beyond the Fringe (Screen and Cinema) Talking Heads
5.0 out of 5 stars
Forty Years On,
By G.M.Hopkins "alto" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Forty Years on: BBC Radio 4 Full Cast Dramatisation (BBC Radio Collection) (Audio CD)
Wonderful play with wonderful cast. Spans remembrances of the end of WW One over to the beginning of World War Two, on the occasion of retirement of headmaster at Englsih public school,
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