Theatre History Overview Part 107 - Kitchen Sink Drama

Kitchen Sink Drama is a theatre movement that started in Britain in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was a form of drama that deliberately left from realism and the well-made play.

In kitchen sink drama, working-class life and popular culture is depicted as it experienced in real life. The characters tend to be young, angry, and disillusioned. The plays are seen as intelligent and self-reflective.

The term kitchen sink drama came from the movement kitchen sink realism or kitchen sink school. This was a movement that started with British painters in the 1950s. The name is derived from a painting by John Bratby that featured a kitchen sink. Kitchen sinks became a symbol for domesticity.

The first truly well-known kitchen sink drama play is Look Back in Anger by John Osborne. Another notable play from kitchen sink drama is A Taste of Honey by Tony Richardson. This play is notable because rather than the protagonist being male, the protagonist is a young female.

While it outside of the main region and main time for kitchen sink drama, the song "Prelude/Angry Young Man" by Billy Joel fits into the genre of kitchen sink. There is a young man that is angry with his working class conditions. Billy Joel has told the story of the inspiration for this song which isn't actually from kitchen sink, but the road manager who inspired the song with his actions had served in the Vietnam War in the 1950s, so the person would have had the ideals of the angry young man of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

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References

• Dunn, E. (n.d.). Everything you need to know about kitchen sink dramas. Reader’s Digest. https://www.readersdigest.co.uk/culture/film-tv/everything-you-need-to-know-about-kitchen-sink-dramas
• Kitchen sink school. Oxford Reference. (n.d.). https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198604761.001.0001/acref-9780198604761-e-1886
• MacCabe, C. (n.d.). A taste of honey: Northern accents. The Criterion Collection. https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4193-a-taste-of-honey-northern-accents
• Prelude/angry young man. One Final Serenade: The Songs of Billy Joel (Billy Joel Fan Site). (n.d.). https://www.onefinalserenade.com/preludeangry-young-man.html#:~:text=Billy%20explains%20the%20inspiration%20and,time%20getting%20along%20with%20others.