READING NOËL COWARD’S CAVALCADE AS A PROBLEM PLAY

Year 2024, Volume: 64 Issue: 1, 469 - 487, 25.06.2024

Ayşe Şensoy

https://doi.org/10.33171/dtcfjournal.2024.64.1.19

Abstract

Sir Noël Peirce Coward (1899-1973) was a prolific English playwright, actor, director, writer, composer, songwriter, and screenwriter who produced numerous works of plays, musicals, songs, short stories, poetry and a novel. However, Coward is most admired for his drama. He is acknowledged to be a playwright of comedy of manners, musical comedy, and light comedy. The 1930s showed the peak of his theatrical success. Coward stages the realities of the twentieth century life in Britain by means of intellectual, psychological and witty discussion of the sociopolitical issues in everyday life. Although he is known for his comedies, he became successful with one of his noncomic plays: Cavalcade (1931). Coward reveals his sense of the theatre and his stagecraft in the play to thrill, distress and puzzle the audience. The play presents the changes in nation’s spirit and society with the coming of the new age, which bring about domestic, social, political, economic and moral problems for English people. It discusses such problems as the conflict between patriotism and jingoism, Englishness, futility of war, human cost of war, breakdown of the social class system, tension between the lower and upper classes, social mobility, modernisation in life and society, generation gap, maintenance of peace, honour and dignity, and political partisanship. Although the play presents conflicting opinions or situations at the same time, it does not suggest any formula to resolve the contradiction. In this respect, this article aims to analyse Coward’s serious and realistic play as a problem play both in form and content by interpreting the historical events and topical sociopolitical issues of Coward’s time.

Keywords

Noël Coward, Cavalcade, Problem play, Sociopolitical issues, Realism

NOËL COWARD’IN RESMİGEÇİT ESERİNİN BİR PROBLEM OYUNU OLARAK İNCELENMESİ

Abstract

Sir Noël Peirce Coward (1899-1973) çok sayıda tiyatro oyunu, müzikal, şarkı, kısa öykü, şiir ve bir roman eseri kazandıran üretken bir İngiliz oyun yazarı, aktör, yönetmen, yazar, besteci, söz yazarı ve senaristti. Ancak Coward en çok tiyatro oyunlarıyla takdir toplamıştır. Coward, töre komedisi, müzikal komedi ve hafif komedi yazarı olarak kabul edilmektedir. 1930’lu yıllar Coward’ın tiyatro başarısının zirvesi olmuştur. Gündelik hayattaki sosyopolitik meselelerin entelektüel, psikolojik ve esprili tartışmasıyla Britanya'da yirminci yüzyıl yaşamının gerçeklerini sahneye koymuştur. Oyun yazarı, her ne kadar komedileriyle tanınsa da komik olmayan oyunlarından biri olan Resmigeçit (1931) ile büyük başarı elde etmiştir. Seyirciyi heyecanlandırmak, endişelendirmek ve şaşırtmak için tiyatro anlayışını ve sahne sanatını oyunda ortaya koymuştur. Oyun, İngiliz halkına ailevi, toplumsal, siyasî, ekonomik ve ahlakî sorunları beraberinde getiren yeni çağın gelmesiyle birlikte ulus ruhunda ve toplumda meydana gelen değişimleri konu alır. Oyun, vatanseverlik ve aşırı milliyetçilik arasındaki çatışma, İngilizlik, savaşın beyhudeliği, savaşın insan maliyeti, toplumsal sınıf sisteminin çöküşü, alt ve üst sınıflar arasındaki gerilim, toplumsal hareketlilik, yaşamda ve toplumda modernleşme, kuşak farkı, barışın, onurun ve haysiyetin korunması ve siyasî partizanlık gibi sorunları tartışmaktadır. Oyun, birbiriyle çatışan görüş veya durumları birlikte sunsa da çatışmayı çözecek bir formül önermez. Bu bağlamda bu makale, Coward'ın yaşadığı dönemin tarihsel olaylarını ve güncel sosyo-politik konularını yorumlayarak, onun ciddi ve gerçekçi oyununu hem biçim hem içerik bakımından bir problem oyunu olarak incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.

Keywords

Noël Coward, Resmigeçit, Problem oyunu, Sosyopolitik meseleler, Gerçekçilik

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