Number of pages: 86
Number of reading days: 2
Why I read this book: While in London, we read and attended a performance of The Madness of George III by Bennett. My professor mentioned this play in class discussion and spoke about Bennett and the lady who lived in his garden for over ten years. Because I liked Bennett's writing and was interested in learning more about him and this van lady, I decided to follow up by reading the play text. I may try to get my hands on the radio drama, starring Dame Maggie Smith (she played Miss Shepherd in the stage production) and Bennett himself, as Alan Bennett 2.
Thoughts: I just loved this play. And after reading the text, I really want to see it performed! My favorite aspect of this play was the double Alan Bennett: Alan Bennett, the public persona who takes part in the action, and Alan Bennett 2, the writer who comments on what's happening around him. I just loved the interaction between the two Bennetts. At one point, the two argue about adding a fictional conversation into the play:
Miss Shepherd: How's your mother?
Alan Bennett: The same. Doesn't remember me now.
Miss Shepherd: I'm not surprised. She doesn't see you very often. Will you write about me?
Alan Bennett looks enquiringly at Alan Bennett 2.
Alan Bennett: I don't know. She never said this.
Alan Bennett 2: So?
Miss Shepherd: You write about your mother.
Alan Bennett: She didn't say that either.
Alan Bennett 2: No, but why shoudn't she?
Miss Shepherd: You write about her all the time, one way and another. You use your mother.
Alan Bennett: (looking at Alan Bennett 2) That's what writers do.
The addition of a second Bennett created metatheatre (and we all know how I feel about anything "meta") and made the story not only about Miss Shepherd, but Bennett as well.
I also adored Miss Shepherd. When I read her lines, I always imagined Maggie Smith's voice in my head. It was perfect.
Sometimes I feel like Bennett has too much of an agenda with this work. Like he's trying to hard to get a point across to his audience/reader. And while I still felt that way while reading The Lady in the Van, I really didn't mind. It worked for me.
Oh how I wish I could see this performed. That's the trouble with reading plays.
Favorite Passages & Quotes:
From Bennett's introduction:
"Telling the truth crops up quite a bit in the play, what Miss Shepherd did or didn't do a subject of some disagreement between 'the boys', as I tended to think of the two Alan Bennetts. They call not telling the truth 'lying', but 'the imagination' would be a kinder way of putting it, with Alan Bennett the writer finally winning through to make Miss Shepherd talk of her past (as she never actually did) and even to bring her back from the dead in order to take her bodily up to heaven (also imaginary). These departures from the facts were genuinely hard-won and took some coming to, causing me to reflect, not for the first time, that the biggest handicap for a writer is to have had a decent upbrining. Brought up not to lie or show off, I was temperamentally inclined to do both, particularly as a small child, and though reining me in perhaps improved my character it was no help in my future profession, where lying, or romancing anyway, is the essence of it."
Alan Bennett 2: The question now arises: how did she end up in the garden?
Alan Bennett: Simple. You invited her.
Alan Bennett 2: Me?
Alan Bennett: On what you called 'the cork-lined room principle.' Her being attacked on the street all the time jeopardized your peace of mind so you couldn't work. That's what you said. I just thought you wanted something to write about.
Alan Bennett 2: I never wanted to write about her. 'Oh another old lady. Right up your street!' Her coming into the garden was a question of will. It was what she wanted all along and you found it easier to say yes than no.
Alan Bennett: People could say that was kind.
Alan Bennett 2: Kind is so tame. Come on, help me. Couldn't it be anger? Social conscience? Guilt!
Alan Bennett: No.
Alan Bennett 2: Well, whatever it might be let us be plain about one thing: it can't be just nice. Nice is dull.
Alan Bennett: Yes. And anyway, I'm not nice.
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