Chicken Soup with Barley

Description

The kettle boils in 1936 as the fascists are marching. Tea is brewed in 1946, with disillusion in the air at the end of the war. Twenty years on, in 1956, as rumours spread of Hungarian revolution, the cup is empty. Sarah Khan, an East End Jewish mother, is a feisty political fighter and a staunch communist. Battling against the State and her shirking husband, she desperately tries to keep her family together. This landmark state-of-the-nation play is a panoramic drama portraying the age-old battle between realism and idealism. Chicken Soup with Barley captures the collapse of an ideology alongside the disintegration of a family. Chicken Soup with Barley, the first in a trilogy that includes Roots and I'm Talking about Jerusalem was first performed at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry in 1958 and transferred to the Royal Court in the same year.

Arnold Wesker is one of Britain's seminal post-war playwrights. His varied writings include essays, short stories, poetry, journalism and 49 plays, which have been translated into 18 languages. His other plays include The Kitchen, Roots, Chips with Everything and Shylock.

It reminds us of Wesker's rare gift for generating strong emotion while encompassing big ideas. -- Michael Billington * The Guardian * The play...has a deep core of humanity. Its title is a reference to a memorable, evocative flavour that remains after everything has gone - a reminder of the warm, enduring nourishment afforded by friendships. -- Henry Hitchings * Evening Standard * Chicken Soup with Barley (1958) is warm, untidy, passionate and garrulous... This is a play that genuinely combines the personal and the political. -- Charles Spencer * Daily Telegraph * It has a deep vein of humanity running through it. -- Sarah Hemming * Financial Times * Wesker's intimate portrait of a Jewish, East End family falling apart also has epic sweep. -- David Jays * Sunday Times * What makes the play so powerful is that Wesker never uses it as a soapbox. His political intelligence is shaped by ambiguity, subtlety and his warm heart. -- Observer * Kate Kellaway *