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The basis and development o f the Workers’ Theatre M ovement (1932) Workers’ Theatre Movement first National Conference, Charter Hall, 59 Cromer Street, London, 25-26 June 1932 The Workers’ Theatre Movement has been in existence now for just over six years. Four years of patient laying of foundations have been succeeded by two years of very rapid expansion, until during the past winter as many as thirty groups have been at work.This rapid growth has two main causes. First, the stiffening of the workers’ resistance to the evergrowing attacks on their standard of life, and second, the complete change in the methods of the Workers’ Theatre Movement, by which it has been able to respond to this and play an active part in the struggles.The Central Committee considers it necessary to put forward a statement at the first National Conference on the nature of the movement, its development and future activities, in order to provide a basis for discussion at the Conference. The capitalist theatreThe theatre and cinema, like the press and wireless, serve to blind the workers to the existence of the class struggle, while particularly in times of war, they are used to drive the workers of the different countries to slaughter each other for the benefit of their exploiters.The contributions that capitalism has made to the art of the theatre share, with the rest of bourgeois culture, in the general decline of capitalism. Nine-tenths of life, as the mass of the people know it, is taboo at the theatres and cinemas today, and they attempt to cover up their bankruptcy of ideas by means of extrava­gant and meaningless display. The left-wing theatresThe revolt of the intellectuals against the triviality of the large-scale capitalist theatre finds its expression in the rise of the ‘little’

100 The Workers’ Theatre Movement (1926-1935): Documents and repertory theatres, and, also in the advanced section of the amateur dramatic movement. However, such theatres do not realize that the capitalist basis of the bourgeois theatre is the cause of this triviality, and, proclaiming themselves to be ‘above the battle’, lose themselves in ingenious but sterile technicalities and experiments. Labour Party, ILP and Co-op groupsWithin such groups two main tendencies exist. First, the belief that it is their mission to bring the working class into contact with ‘great’ art (i.e. capitalist art) and second, the tendency to produce plays which may deal with the misery of the workers, may even deal with the class struggle, but which show no way out, and which therefore spread a feeling of defeat and despair. The Workers’ TheatreBut the Workers’ Theatre does not pretend to be above the struggle. It is an expression of the workers’ struggle in dramatic form. It is consciously a weapon of the workers’ revolution, which is the only solution of the present crisis. It not only unmasks the capitalist system but organizes the workers to fight their way out.Because it deals with realities it escapes from the emptiness of bourgeois drama and becomes the first step in the development of proletarian drama. AbroadIn other countries the Workers’ Theatre, having passed through the early stages of development, has already become a powerful factor in the workers’ struggle. For example, in Germany its value has been attested by the Fascist Government by a decree of practical illegality - but performances are carried out in spite of this. In Japan, it is an important part of the proletarian cultural movement, which alone of the workers’ organization is permitted to exist legally. Two monthly papers are issued, and in Tokyo alone there are 40,000 organized spectators around one workers’ theatre.In the Soviet Union the workers, having overcome capitalism, are faced with different problems. This is reflected in the theatre, which is becoming a leading force in building up socialism, while even capitalist observers are compelled to admit the great artistic

achievements of the theatres and cinemas of the Soviet working class. In BritainIn Britain the Workers’ Theatre Movement, while profiting from the experience of the more advanced organizations abroad, must learn to adapt itself to the particular conditions which exist here. Every strike, every wage-cut, every attack on the workers’ conditions must find its expression on the platform of the Workers’ Theatre and no exclusive attention to general political events can be a substitute for this. Methods of workIn most countries there has been a parallel line of development, in spite of many local differences. First has come the conception of using the theatre form as a propaganda weapon. Plays borrowed or adapted from the bourgeois stage were given a new emphasis and played in the traditional manner. Next, new plays were written, still based on the curtained stage and the traditional style of acting, but with revolutionary themes. In England a beginning was made in 1926 with some of the plays of Shaw, Capek, Elmer Rice, etc., until in 1928 sufficient technical experience had been gained to construct plays for ourselves, with a working-class content. The dramatic adaptation of The Ragged Trousered Philan­thropists, The Fight Goes On are typical productions of this period, which came to its close by the end of 1930. The naturalistic methodThe experience gained with these plays shows:1 that the naturalistic form, namely that form which endeavours to show a picture on the stage as near to life as possible, is suitable for showing things as they appear on the surface, but does not lend itself to disclosing the reality which lies beneath. And it is just this reality existing beneath the polite surface of capitalist society that the Workers’ Theatre must reveal.2 That the unities of space and time, which are one of its main features, greatly hinder the portrayal of the class struggle in dramatic form (consider, for instance, the difficulty in bringing together in a reasonable, naturalistic way, an ordinary worker and an important capitalist).