‘Thinking Like a Mountain’: Ecocritical Perspectives on Norman Nicholson’s Mountain Dramaturgy

Cumbrian poet and verse dramatist Norman Nicholson (1914–1987) deserves to be adopted as a ‘permanent poet-in-residence’ for the environmental movement. This article proposes that Nicholson’s credentials as an ecopoet are as richly illustrated in his plays, as they are in his more acclaimed poetry. Though they represent an important contribution to what we define as ‘mountain eco-dramaturgy’, Nicholson’s dramas are overlooked. His most well-known play, The Old Man of the Mountains (1946), has seen scant interest from contemporary critics and the later play, Birth by Drowning (1960), is virtually undiscussed, despite its radical approach to the dramatisation of the more-than-human. A close reading of both plays underpinned with a discussion of Aldo Leopold’s influential essay, ‘Thinking like a Mountain’ (1949) leads us to ask, how far does Nicholson achieve the elusive aim of thinking like a mountain? And should he be adopted as a permanent playwright-in-residence for followers of environmentalism?