Thursday 14 November 2013

George Garrett Archive project.

 Module Two, Workshop Four.
Last years in the States.
A Playwright Amongst Stokers. 1924-26.

It’s a question of identity. How did George travel from the image of his early days as a Stoker, or even from the ‘Coney Island Boy’ of 1919, to the image taken when he enters the States, for the second time, in 1923, when he appears to have modelled himself upon the writers of the day, going by the name George Oswald James?

Who was George Oswald James? That’s an open question. The issues really is about where were the influences coming from that he was absorbing; and the answer to that, as we discussed before, lies in the plays of the new radical, Eugene O’Neill, with Far Horizon, Anna Christie and The Hairy Ape. It seems likely that George has already written, or begun writing, his short stories. The Irish tramp writer, Jim Phelan, who first met Garrett (or Joe Jarrett as he refers to him in ‘The Name’s Phelan’) in New Orleans, talks about how Garrett already referred to himself as a writer. It’s most likely, with stories already in his bag, that Garrett’s head was turned by the new drama pouring forth from New York, which would have chimed well with his ‘Wobbly’ sensibilities of mixing theatre and song with a radical message.

Garrett is in New York and needs to earn money. In the middle of the prohibition era (1920-33) he works in a brewery; While seemingly living under the radar he takes a job as a janitor in a Police Station. He lives on East 42nd Street, a bohemian time. The age of prohibition is also the age of the mobster. Like a real life Zelig, he’s even on hand to witness the aftermath of the murder of the legendary boxer ‘Battling Siki’.

During his time in New York there is a major world-wide strike of British shipping. The strike was provoked by a union-imposed wage cut. Seamen, realising they couldn’t walk off at home, who now had to apply for a 'PC5 system' which allowed the Shipping Federation and the union to decide who could work on the ships, began to walk off ships in ports across the world outside of the UK – New York, Montreal, New Zealand, Auckland, etc. A strike against Empire.

George, a good friend of George Hardy, leader of the International Seamen’ Organisation, would no doubt have been fully aware of this, yet appears to have played no part. It’s entirely possible that in this period George still harboured hopes of bringing Grace and his young family to New York and applying for naturalisation. Three years in the States without sailing is a long time, and it seems he may have even decided that his days as a seamen could be over too. But why?

Taking menial jobs, often working at night, coupled with his extraordinary literary output and his lodging with the three young, no doubt struggling actors, suggests that George was in America for one specific reason – to write. In many ways this is his first period of sustained writing, and his decision to leave Liverpool, and the UK, after the end of the 1922 Hunger March, also relives him of his duties as he felt them towards his fellow unemployed, a responsibility he took very seriously, although intensely conscious of the effect it had upon the time he could devote to writing.

The excellent work of the late Michael Murphy, who brought together George’s short stories together for the first time in print in 1999’s The Collected George Garrett, served also to position him primarily as an artist of the short form. When you consider the three plays he writes in the early 1920’s, Two Tides, Flowers and Candles and Tombstones and Grass, the plays he writes, or contributes to for The Unity Theatre in the 1930’s, Man with a Plan and One Hundred Years Hard, plus work we have seen in an as yet undocumented section of the archive, as well his work as an actor for The Left Theatre and Unity Theatre, it could be argued that he was primarily a dramatist.

Yet, taking into account that the only evidence we have of his plays in New York are two rejection letters from theatres, it seems surprising that, upon returning to Liverpool in 1926 he seems to leave his plays behind. Judging by the strength of his technique allied to the progressive themes of his plays, it may well have been that he simply had no outlet for them in Liverpool. When that outlet appeared in the form of The Left and Unity Theatre, he returned to drama, although not his original plays.

George’s time in New York in the mid-twenties represents for him an intensely creative period. But as it draws to a close, when the work dries up and American workers are being favoured over George and the many immigrants trying to make a buck, with America being on an unstoppable course towards the great crash of 1929, and with his efforts as a playwright gaining little success, it’s also a time for some serious decisions. In reality the only choice for George is to go back to sea, back to Liverpool.

Tony, quoting from Olivia Laing’s book, Trip to Echo Spring: Why Writers Drink, mentioned Raymond Carver’s quote about the long erosion of hope often experienced by many writers as they struggle to live and keep at their craft. George never turned to drink. But, if he couldn’t make a go of his plays in the States, how in the hell was he going to make it work in Britain, with its ban on American Musicians and still oh so stiff collar attitudes, particularly on a cultural level, where jazz was seen as the devil’s music. The excitement of America, with all its privations, must surely have seemed a long, long way away on his return to Liverpool and the still extant mass unemployment. No doubt the silver-lining for George, the main driving force bringing him home, and something celebrated throughout Tombstones and Grass, would have been his family.

It’s hard to believe, but in all the material we have come across in the archive, from his great friends Jerry Dawson, Alan O’Toole, and from various biographical sketches and critical notes, virtually no-one mentions his plays. And although there’s no doubt, given more time, critical support and encouragement, they may have been developed further, as they stand they are not without merit. What is most incredible is how quickly George absorbs the new direction of the New York drama, and is able to bring it fully to bear in his work, in both his Liverpool play Two Tides, and in the two following that are set in New York.

There isn’t the time here to go into any great analysis of the plays, but I do just want to show some quotes from Tombstones and Grass, which give a glimpse of the progressive nature of George’s themes, and how he is using Modernist techniques, something I doubt many other Liverpool, or even UK playwrights generally were using at this time. It will be some interesting research to look into just what was playing in the theatres in Liverpool in the mid 1920’s.

The short story published in May 1935, ‘The Overcoat’, takes on a greater significance when considering George’s use of pseudonyms, and his ever changing identity. Allen, the young brother, takes advantage of his elder brother Andrew’s hospitalisation to wear Andrew’s new, expensive overcoat. It seems too large, but he grows into it, and wears it out and about to impress his girlfriend. He’s mistaken for his brother and receives a compliment on his behalf. He falls out with his girl after arriving late, leaving her on a wet corner, because he couldn't risk getting the coat wet. He finds himself trapped, unable to let it go, but living a lie. His brother dies, and guilt consumes him – has he killed him off?


‘The Overcoat’ is an incredibly skillful story, with layer upon layer of meaning, within the text itself, and also taken as a reading relating to George’s life. The new overcoat transforms how Allen feels about himself, in much the same way as George’s pseudonyms may have worked for George.

These extracts from Tombstones and Grass, give a brief insight into George’s themes. The play follows the fortunes of Jim, breaking free from his overbearing parents, who suffers the death of his young wife after childbirth. The child is brought up by his wife’s sister, Josephine, a nurse who is resisting the approaches of the doctor. The play ends in tragedy for Jim, but the themes throughout a strong and uplifting, exploring race, the modern family and superficial respectability genuine love.






The plays will all be available on the George Garrett website in due course, and we will be presenting a rehearsed reading of his earliest play set in Liverpool in 1918, Two Tides, during the George Garrett celebration events at the Writing on the Wall festival in 2014.

The George Garrett Archive project workshops are free and open to all. We meet every Monday, 6-8pm in Liverpool John Moores University’s Aldham Robarts Library, Maryland Street, L1 9DE (off HopeStreet).


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