Kitchen sink realism (orkitchen sink drama) is aBritish cultural movement that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art,[1] 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 ofsocial realism which depicted the domestic situations ofworking-class Britons, living in cramped rented accommodation and spending their off-hours drinking in grimypubs, to explore controversial social and political issues ranging from abortion to homelessness. The harsh, realistic style contrasted sharply with theescapism of the previous generation's so-called "well-made plays".
The films, plays and novels employing this style are often set in poorer industrial areas in theNorth of England, and use the accents and slang heard in those regions. The filmIt Always Rains on Sunday (1947) is a precursor of the genre and theJohn Osborne playLook Back in Anger (1956) is thought of as the first of the genre. The gritty love-triangle ofLook Back in Anger, for example, takes place in a cramped, one-room flat in theEnglish Midlands.Shelagh Delaney's 1958 playA Taste of Honey (which was made into afilm of the same name in 1961) is about a white teenage schoolgirl who has an affair with a black sailor, gets pregnant and then moves in with a gay male acquaintance; it raises issues such as class, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. The conventions of the genre have continued into the 2000s, finding expression in such television shows asCoronation Street andEastEnders.[2]
The term "Kitchen Sink School" was first used in the visual arts, where the art criticDavid Sylvester used it in 1954 to describe a group of painters who called themselves the Beaux Arts Quartet, and depictedsocial realist–type scenes of domestic life.[3]
The cultural movement was rooted in the ideals of social realism, an artistic movement expressed in the visual and otherrealist arts which depicts working class activities. Many artists who subscribed to social realism were painters withsocialist political views.[citation needed] While the movement has some commonalities withSocialist Realism, another style ofrealism which was the "official art" advocated by the governments of the Soviet Union and otherEastern Bloc countries, the two had several differences. While social realism is a broader type of art that realistically depicts subjects of social concern,[4] Socialist realism is characterized by the glorified depiction of socialist values, such as the emancipation of theproletariat, in a realistic manner.[5]
Unlike Socialist realism, social realism is not an official art produced by or under the supervision of the government. The leading characters are often 'anti-heroes' rather than part of a class to be admired, as in Socialist realism.[citation needed] Typically, protagonists in social realism are dissatisfied with their working class lives and the world, rather than being idealised workers who are part of a Socialist utopia in the process of creation. As such, social realism allows more space for thesubjectivity of the author to be displayed.
Partly, social realism developed as a reaction againstRomanticism[citation needed], which promoted lofty concepts such as the "ineffable" beauty and truth of art and music and even turned them into spiritual ideals. As such, social realism focused on the "ugly realities of contemporary life and sympathized with working class people, particularly the poor." (The quotation is from George Shi, of the University of Fine Arts, Valencia).[6]
Kitchen sink realism involves working class settings and accents, including accents from Northern England.[7][8] The films and plays often explore taboo subjects such as adultery, pre-marital sex, abortion, and crime.[9]
In the United Kingdom, the term "kitchen sink" derived fromexpressionist paintings byJohn Bratby that contained an image of a kitchen sink.[10] Bratby did various kitchen and bathroom-themed paintings, including three paintings of toilets. Bratby's paintings of people often depicted the faces of his subjects as desperate and unsightly.[11][12] Kitchen sink realism artists painted everyday objects, such as trash cans and beer bottles. The critic David Sylvester wrote an article in 1954 about trends in recent English art, calling his article "The Kitchen Sink" in reference to Bratby's picture. Sylvester argued that there was a new interest among young painters in domestic scenes, with stress on the banality of life.[2] Other artists associated with the kitchen sink style include Derrick Greaves,Edward Middleditch andJack Smith.[13]
Before the 1950s, the United Kingdom'sworking class were often depicted stereotypically inNoël Coward'sdrawing room comedies and British films.[citation needed] Kitchen sink realism was seen as being in opposition to the "well-made play", the kind which theatre criticKenneth Tynan once denounced as being set in "Loamshire", of dramatists likeTerence Rattigan. "Well-made plays" were a dramatic genre fromnineteenth-century theatre which found its early 20th-century codification in Britain in the form ofWilliam Archer'sPlay-Making: A Manual of Craftmanship (1912),[14] and in the United States withGeorge Pierce Baker'sDramatic Technique (1919).[15] Kitchen sink works were created with the intention of changing that. Their political views were initially labeled asradical, sometimes evenanarchic.[citation needed]
John Osborne's playLook Back in Anger (1956) depicted young men in a way that is similar to the then-contemporary "Angry Young Men" movement of film and theatre directors. The "angry young men" were a group of mostly working andmiddle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. Following the success of the Osborne play, the label "angry young men" was later applied by British media to describe young writers who were characterised by a disillusionment with traditionalBritish society. The hero ofLook Back In Anger is a graduate, but he is working in a manual occupation. It dealt withsocial alienation, the claustrophobia and frustrations of a provincial life on low incomes.[citation needed]
The impact of this work inspiredArnold Wesker,Shelagh Delaney, and numerous others, to write plays of their own.[citation needed] The English Stage Company at theRoyal Court Theatre, headed byGeorge Devine andTheatre Workshop organised byJoan Littlewood were particularly prominent in bringing these plays to public attention. CriticJohn Heilpern wrote thatLook Back in Anger expressed such "immensity of feeling and class hatred" that it altered the course of English theatre.[2] The term "Angry theatre" was coined by criticJohn Russell Taylor.[16]
This was all part of theBritish New Wave—a transposition of the concurrentnouvelle vague film movement in France, some of whose works, such asThe 400 Blows of 1959, also emphasised the lives of the urban proletariat. British filmmakers such asTony Richardson andLindsay Anderson (see alsoFree Cinema) channelled their vitriolic anger into film making. Confrontational films such asSaturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) andA Taste of Honey (1961) were noteworthy movies in the genre.Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is about a young machinist who spends his wages at weekends on drinking and having a good time, until his affair with a married woman leads to her getting pregnant and him being beaten by her husband's cousins to the point of hospitalisation.A Taste of Honey is about a 16-year old schoolgirl with an abusive, alcoholic mother. The schoolgirl starts a relationship with a black sailor and gets pregnant. After the sailor leaves on his ship, Jo moves in with a homosexual acquaintance who assumes the role of surrogate father.A Taste of Honey raises the issues of class, race, gender and sexual orientation.[citation needed]
Later, as many of these writers and directors diversified, kitchen sink realism was taken up by television directors who produced television plays. The single play was then a staple of the medium, andArmchair Theatre (1956–68), produced by the ITV contractorABC,The Wednesday Play (1964–70) andPlay for Today (1970–84), both BBC series, contained many works of this kind.Jeremy Sandford's television playCathy Come Home (1966, directed byKen Loach forThe Wednesday Play slot) for instance, addressed the issue of homelessness.[17]
Kitchen sink realism was used in the novels ofStan Barstow,John Braine,Alan Sillitoe and others.[18]
The influence of kitchen sink realism has continued in the work of other more recent British directors such asKen Loach (whose first directorial roles were in late 1960s kitchen sink dramas) andMike Leigh. Other directors to continue working within the spirit of kitchen sink realism includeShane Meadows,Andrea Arnold,Clio Barnard, andLynne Ramsay.[19] The term "neo kitchen sink" has been used for films such as Leigh's 2004Vera Drake.[20]
