ABSTRACT
First published in 1985, this book examines how workers theatre movements intended their performances to be activist — perceiving art as a weapon of struggle and enlightenment — and an emancipatory act. An introductory study relates left-wing theatre groupings to the cultural narratives of contemporary British socialism. The progress of the Workers’ Theatre Movement (1928-1935) is traced from simple realism to the most brilliant phase of its Russian and German development alongside which the parallel movements in the United States are also examined. A number of crucial texts are reprints as well as stage notes and glimpses of the dramaturgical controversies which accompanied them.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |2 pages
Part 2 The Workers' Theatre Movement (1926-1935)
part |2 pages
Part 4 The debate on naturalism
part |2 pages
Part 5 Proletkult: a view from the Plebs League
part |2 pages
Part 6 Some origins o f Theatre Workshop