Wesker Plays: 1: The Wesker Trilogy: Chicken Soup with Barley; Roots; I’m Talking About Jerusalem

This first volume of Wesker’s Collected Plays contains the Wesker Trilogy - ‘A trilogy which will act as a monument to its era’ Daily Mail

This trilogy of plays was premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in the 60s and concern Wesker’s own background, growing up in a Jewish family in the 30s in the East End of London. ‘The action of the trilogy takes place between the middle thirties and the late fifties and has as its background three wars - the Spanish Civil, the Second World, and the Cold. Its purpose is to show the ways in which these huge disturbances impinge on a Jewish working-class household, altering their habits of work and thought, and thus determining the course of their lives. The theme is a vast one and Mr Wesker is splendidly equipped to handle it. Like many Jewish writers, he thinks internationally, yet feels domestically; and it is this combination of attributes that enables him to bring gigantic events and ordinary people into the same sharp focus’ (Kenneth Tynan, Observer)

‘A trilogy which will act as a monument to its era’ (Daily Mail)

The passion of Mr Wesker’s theme is matched by the living fire in his writing … its quality is undiminished by the passing years Bernard Levin

The theme is a vast one and Mr Wesker is splendidly equipped to handle it. Like many Jewish writers, he thinks internationally, yet feels domestically; and it is this combination of attributes that enables him to bring gigantic events and ordinary people into the same sharp focus Kenneth Tynan, Observer