Merkin, Ros (1993) The theatre of the organised working class 1830-1930. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Preview

PDF WRAP_THESIS_Merkin_1993.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (30Mb)

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

This study of the theatre of the British Labour Movement had
its roots in 1985 when History Workshop published a collection
of documents relating to the Workers' Theatre Movements in
Britain and America between 1880 and 1935. In his introductory
essay in Theatres of the Left, Raphael Samuel concludes that
there are no traditions in British Labour Theatre except those
which have been broken or lost, that
There is no continuous history of socialist or
alternative history to be discovered, rather a
succession of moments separated from one another by
a rupture (1).
Since this conclusion was reached, others have repeated
Samuel's assertion in varying forms. So, Andrew Davies talks
of "scanty Chartist theatrical activity" and of the mainstream
lab6ur movement in the 1920s remaining "uninterested in
cultural matters" and Ian Saville asserts that
the conception of a partisan, organised theatre
devoted to spreading the socialist message
throughout the working classes only began to take
shape in Britain in the mid-1920s (2).
Yet a cursory glance at the theatre which preceded the
Workers' Theatre Movement, a glance which Raphael Samuel
provides in his introductory essay on theatre and socialism in
Britain, reveals I a plethora of activity in the labour
movement. From the Chartists and the Owlenites in the nineteenth century, through the Socialist Sunday Schools and
the Socialist League to the Clarion movement, the Independent
Labour Party and the Labour Party, the theatrical activity
pointed to by Samuel is startling in comparison to anything we
can see today. What follows is an attempt to look at some of
those moments, to look at the plays they produced and at both
how and why working class political organisations looked to
the theatre, to try to ascertain if they were indeed no more
than broken threads and if so to try to account for why this
may be the case. It is also an attempt to re-examine some of
our notions of what is political theatre, for since the
discovery of the work of the Workers' Theatre Movement and
subsequently of the Actresses Franchise League much has been
made of these as the starting point of political theatre in
Britain. Yet, for a country with one of the longest traditions
of organised working class movements, such assertions seem at
best strange, at worst dishonest.
One clue as to the reason for such claims can be found in the
characterisation of the theatre of the organised working class
prior to the Workers' Theatre Movement which has become common
currency. It was, in the words of Colin Chambers, primarily
of ethical and anti-militarist rather than directly political",
or in the words of Raphael Samuel:
First, the belief that it is their mission to bring
the working class into contact with "great" art (ie
capitalist art) and second, the tendency to produce
plays which may deal with the misery of the workerss
may even deal with the class struggleg but which
show no way out, and which therefore spread a
feeling of defeat and despair (3).
Such definitions of what is (or rather what is not) political
theatre rest very heavily on a notion that political is most
importantly propaganda. If the theatre that existed in
connection with political organisations prior to 1926 was not
propagandist then it follows for some that it was not
political. What follows is therefore also an attempt to
uncover a different approach, by looking at the groups own
justifications for their involvement in theatrical ventures as
part of the struggle for socialism.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Workers' theater -- Great Britain -- History, British Labour Movement -- History, Socialism and theater -- Great Britain -- History, Theater -- Political aspects -- Great Britain
Official Date:	January 1993
Dates:	Date Event January 1993 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Theatre Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Extent:	v, 517 leaves
Language:	eng

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item

Downloads