The Brig arose from the Becks’ own jail experience of volition stripped

Evidence

In rehearsal as the Becks prepared for the May 8 “Worldwide Strike for Peace,” The Brig provided them with a master metaphor. During the summer of 1959, after they were arrested and jailed for refusing to take cover during a city-wide civil defense exercise, the couple published an essay in the Voice under the headline ALL THE WORLD’S A PRISON that prophesied The Brig. … It is that you are robbed of your volition. It is the feeling of subjugation. It is that your body is recognized as a thing to be dealt with but that your mind is disavowed; your will is removed; and as far as functioning goes, you become an automaton to obey orders. Perhaps in this way it is not unlike the Army. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 446

Categorization

• XREF: Relevant to the reader’s test case — the scene’s political activism (civil disobedience) directly fed its aesthetic output.