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Theatre Workshop could have reshaped English theatre—almost did. They offered the theatre profession new possibilities between 1954 and 1965 which stemmed most notably from a European tradition of radical theatre especially active between the two world wars. . . . But in the absence of sufficient signs of continuity for Theatre Workshop’s idea, it becomes harder to persuade young people that Joan Littlewood’s work was significant, let alone to describe it in any meaningful way. She is history now, this tough-on-the-surface Mother Figure of modern theatre.—Derek Paget The turns in the theatrical reputation of Theatre Workshop during its active years, as well as the shift in scholarly assessment of the company in the decades following its demise, present an intriguing case. This chapter explores the processes of mediation that shaped Theatre Workshop’s reputation , centering on its first decade in the Theatre Royal at Stratford East, London. Given that its policy and objectives reflected its origins and evolution during the years preceding the company’s move to Stratford East, a brief review of this early history is necessary. The concluding section illustrates the shift in the scholarly assessment of Theatre Workshop in the last two decades, repositioning both the company and its key production as defining contributions in theatrical and cultural history. Exploring this shift also demonstrates the modification (or rejection) of the narrative constructed around the significance of the English Stage Company’s production of Osborne’s Look Back in Anger discussed in chapter 1. origins: theatre of the people The origins of Theatre Workshop are rooted in the Workers’ Theatre Movement of the late 1920s, with its upsurge of theatrical activities DivergentForces 2 TheatreWorkshop 64 divergent forces following World War I and the General Strike. Theatrical groups, formed primarily by young unemployed workers, had sprung up in the northwest of England, creating a theatre chiefly concerned with daily issues of the class struggle. Performing for working-class audiences in a style that became known as “agitprop” (agitation and propaganda), these groups used theatre as a weapon in the class struggle. In the early 1930s Jimmy Miller, who was to change his name to Ewan MacColl, helped establish Red Megaphones in Salford, and Red Cops in Rochdale. In 1934, with agitprop groups all over the country, Red Megaphones became the Theatre of Action in Manchester. Early that year, in Manchester, MacColl met twenty-year-old Joan Littlewood through his work on radio as an actor and singer. Littlewood had just fled France following the anti-government riots there, where she had intended to join Gaston Baty’s company. Born and raised in the East End of London, Littlewood had attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but left before completing her studies in protest against the pedagogical tradition in which she was being trained, then the reigning theatrical practice manifested by the West End theatre. She met MacColl following an invitation from Archie Harding at the BBC to participate in the radio show Tunnel and subsequently joined Theatre of Action. Her professional collaboration with MacColl, whom she married in 1936, was to last until 1953. Theatre of Action pursued a radical agenda on various levels. Its performances in working-class districts reflected the workers’ lives and struggles, but MacColl recalls that he and Littlewood were also seeking to create a new theatre language: “One thing we felt was that the theatre that we saw, done by local reps or visiting companies, was incredibly static, in terms simply of the physical involvement of actors. It struck us merely as a series of monologues or dialogues, taking place without people doing anything that was particularly relevant on the stage.”1 In their theatrical work, MacColl and Littlewood integrated their study of Meyerhold (in particular his formulation of a system of biomechanics); the dance theories of Rudolf Laban, Piscator, and Bodenwiser; and the stage-lighting theories of Adolph Appia, a Swiss scenic designer. MacColl attributes his discovery and reading of Appia’s theories in 1933 to Alf Armitt, one of the members of Theatre of Action, who built a switchboard that he would operate in front of the audience before the performance started. Appia’s theories of lighting were to be further used in Theatre Workshop’s many other productions.2 Seeking, as MacColl recounts, “to try and find a divergent forces 65 theatrical language and style that people understood, which would move them but not talk down to them...

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