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    Joe Egg

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    Nick Richardson
    The Citizens Theatre in Glasgow initially warned audiences that Peter Nichols' play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg may give offense due to its subject matter of raising a child with cerebral palsy and its unconventional comic approach. However, critics and audiences responded favorably to the world premiere production in 1967, so the theater removed the warning. Nichols uses humor and breaking the fourth wall to depict how the protagonists Bri and Sheila cope with raising their daughter Joe and maintaining their marriage. Though his approach seemed tactless, it stemmed from Nichols' own experience with a daughter who had cerebral palsy. The play uses comedy to present opposing views on quality of life decisions without offering answers, deb

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    Joe Egg

    Uploaded by

    Nick Richardson
    410 views2 pages
    The Citizens Theatre in Glasgow initially warned audiences that Peter Nichols' play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg may give offense due to its subject matter of raising a child with cerebral palsy and its unconventional comic approach. However, critics and audiences responded favorably to the world premiere production in 1967, so the theater removed the warning. Nichols uses humor and breaking the fourth wall to depict how the protagonists Bri and Sheila cope with raising their daughter Joe and maintaining their marriage. Though his approach seemed tactless, it stemmed from Nichols' own experience with a daughter who had cerebral palsy. The play uses comedy to present opposing views on quality of life decisions without offering answers, deb

    Original Description:

    Dramaturgy Note by Nick Richardson

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    The Citizens Theatre in Glasgow initially warned audiences that Peter Nichols' play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg may give offense due to its subject matter of raising a child with cerebral palsy and its unconventional comic approach. However, critics and audiences responded favorably to the world premiere production in 1967, so the theater removed the warning. Nichols uses humor and breaking the fourth wall to depict how the protagonists Bri and Sheila cope with raising their daughter Joe and maintaining their marriage. Though his approach seemed tactless, it stemmed from Nichols' own experience with a daughter who had cerebral palsy. The play uses comedy to present opposing views on quality of life decisions without offering answers, deb

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    410 views2 pages

    Joe Egg

    Uploaded by

    Nick Richardson
    The Citizens Theatre in Glasgow initially warned audiences that Peter Nichols' play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg may give offense due to its subject matter of raising a child with cerebral palsy and its unconventional comic approach. However, critics and audiences responded favorably to the world premiere production in 1967, so the theater removed the warning. Nichols uses humor and breaking the fourth wall to depict how the protagonists Bri and Sheila cope with raising their daughter Joe and maintaining their marriage. Though his approach seemed tactless, it stemmed from Nichols' own experience with a daughter who had cerebral palsy. The play uses comedy to present opposing views on quality of life decisions without offering answers, deb

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 2

    9/22/17 Richardson 1

    From the Dramaturg: Comedy in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

    “The Citizens feel obliged to warn the public that this play deals with the case of a chronically

    retarded child and that not only the subject but the extraordinary way it is treated may possibly

    give offence. However such is the honesty of this play, and so grounded…in first-hand

    experience that we believe it entirely vindicates its production in our theatre.”

    So ran the warning published by the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland on all

    promotional materials for the world premiere of Peter Nichols’ A Day in the Death of Joe Egg in

    May 1967. The Citizens’ board members feared that the play’s representation of a child with

    cerebral palsy (or a “spastic,” in sixties’ medical terminology) was grotesque and stipulated that

    the production must include the above notice. Critics and audiences alike responded so favorably

    to the production that the Citizens removed their advisory after the first night.

    Having a character with disabilities was not the issue at hand; rather, the Citizens Theatre

    fretted over Nichols’s humorous approach to the heavy subject matter. Nichols brings levity to

    raising a daughter with cerebral palsy by playing with form, meshing kitchen-sink realism with

    other non-realistic theatrical styles: music hall variety performance, high farce, and even stand-

    up comedy. These presentational styles break the “fourth wall,” creating a direct relationship

    between the characters and the audience. This allows the characters to openly share their

    thoughts. Through their direct address, we see our protagonists Bri and Sheila use humor to cope

    with the challenges of raising their daughter, Joe, and maintaining a loving marriage.

    Though Nichols’s quasi-comic approach may seem unconventional – even tactless – it

    stems from his own life experience. He and his wife had a daughter with cerebral palsy who died

    at 10 years old, and he personally used humor when discussing his own family. Nichols does

    address Joe’s condition with an earnest realism at times, but the comic performances throughout
    9/22/17 Richardson 2

    the play suggest their own truth: humor as resistance against futility. In this light, Bri and

    Sheila’s coping tactics seem far more plausible.

    Today, 50 years since the play’s premiere, we still debate the same complicated questions

    at the heart of Bri and Sheila’s disputes. What constitutes “quality of life”? Who gets to decide

    what “quality of life” means? Who should make decisions about care for someone with limited

    faculties? Which decisions are right? The playwright offers no answers; instead, he employs

    comedy as a vehicle to present Bri’s and Sheila’s opposing perspectives on making the most of

    life – their daughter’s and their own.

    Nick Richardson

    Dramaturg

    Master’s Student in Theatre Studies

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