ABSTRACT
An aviator who has done some signal service to his country, but who is of humble origin, would easily be the protagonist of a modern play Ella Hepworth Dixon. A great deal of this work, developed within an atmosphere of patriotism – and often jingoism – exhibits strong desires to bolster public resilience, reviving British historical and imperial histories, and drawing on long-standing performance traditions by which to do so. At the same time, there was a widespread engagement with other popular theatrical styles to the extent that theatre historians have come to recognize the theatre of 1914 –18 as remarkably diverse. The theatre's duty to the community was a recurring topic amongst journalists and theatre professionals, especially given the tendency to see theatrical types as 'evasionists' or shirkers. Theatre managements led by Charles Cochran protested strongly at the unfairness of it all.
