Scenes from the Revolution: Making Political Theatre 1968-2018

Political theatre thrives on turbulence. By turning the political issues of the day into a potent, dramatic art form, its practitioners hold up a mirror to our society - with the power to shock, discomfit and entertain. Scenes from the Revolution is a celebration of fifty years of political theatre in Britain. Including 'lost' scripts from companies including Broadside Mobile Workers Theatre, The Women's Theatre Group and The General Will, with incisive commentary from contemporary political theatre makers, the book asks the essential questions: What can be learnt from our rich history of political theatre? And how might contemporary practitioners apply these approaches to our current politically troubled world? Beginning with a short history of pre-1968 political theatre - covering Brecht, Joan Littlewood and Ewan McColl - the editors move on to explore agit-prop, working-class theatre, theatre in education, theatre and race, women’s theatre and LGBTQ theatre. Featuring many of the leading voices in the field, then and now, Scenes from the Revolution is a must-read for anyone interested in politics in the arts.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: A Very Brief History of Political Theatre in the Twentieth Century up to 1968 - Kim Wiltshire and Billy Cowan Prologue by Lyn Gardner Scene 1: Agitprop and Political Theatre Introduction - Kim Wiltshire Interview with Rod Dixon (Red Ladder) and Kathleen McCreery (Red Ladder and Broadside Mobile Workers' Theatre) - Kim Wiltshire Apartheid: The British Connection (Extract), Broadside Mobile Workers' Theatre - Kathleen McCreery Contemporary Protest Theatre in South Africa - David Peimer The Lost Art of Agitprop and the Return of Socialist Praxis - Rebecca Hillman Scene 2: Working-Class Theatre Introduction - Kim Wiltshire Blood Red Roses at the Liverpool Everyman - Bob Eaton Ways of Seeing: Class, Gender and the Universal, from Blood Red Roses to The Sum - Lizzie Nunnery Plugging into History: Time Travel with John McGrath and 7: 84 - Lindsay Rodden Scene 3: Theatre in Education Introduction - Anthony Jackson Farewell to Erin (Extract), Belgrade TIE Company Interview with Tony Hughes (M6 Theatre Company) and Justine Themen (Belgrade TIE Company) - Billy Cowan Everyone's Got a Story to Tell ... and Their Own Way of Telling It - Julia Samuels (20 Stories High) Scene 4: Women's Theatre Introduction - Kim Wiltshire Interview with Sue Parrish (Sphinx) and Mica Nava (Women's Theatre Group) - Kim Wiltshire Work To Role (Extract), Women's Theatre Group The Work of Open Clasp and Why Women-centred Theatre is Still Relevant Today - Catrina McHugh (MBE) and Jill Heslop Forty Years of Women-centred Theatre-Making - Anna Hermann with Kim Wiltshire A Conversation on Sexual Assault in Theatre - Mighty Heart and Kim Wiltshire Scene 5: Queer Theatre Introduction - Billy Cowan Men (Extract), Don Milligan and Nol Greig Interview with Julie Parker (Drill Hall, 1981-2011) - Billy Cowan Interview with Ruth McCarthy (Outburst Queer Arts Festival, Belfast) - Billy Cowan We Who are Here Together: (Re-)making Queer Theatre - Chris Goode Scene 6: Theatre and Race Introduction - May Sumbwanyambe A Tainted Dawn (Extract) - Sudha Bhuchar and Kristine Landon-Smith The Personal is Always Political - Sudha Bhuchar Pokfulam Road Productions: A Political Theatre Company? - Jingan Young Epilogue: Where Next for Political Theatre? - Billy Cowan and Kim Wiltshire Further Reading Notes on Contributors Index

About the Author :
Kim Wiltshire is a playwright and academic who specialises in issue based theatre, especially issues around young people, gender and sexuality, through her company Laid Bare Theatre, with plays such as Project XXX and The Value of Nothing. She is Programme Leader for the Creative Writing course at Edge Hill University. She edited the book Scenes from the Revolution (Pluto, 2018). Billy Cowan is an award-winning playwright and artistic director of Truant Company. His first play Smilin' Through, produced by Birmingham Rep was nominated for Best New Play 2005 by Manchester Evening News and his play Caretakers won the Stage Edinburgh Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2016. He is senior lecturer for creative writing at Edge Hill University. He edited the book Scenes from the Revolution (Pluto, 2018).

Review :
'This is an indispensable archive of resistant performance practice, combining memoir, dramatic and critical writing. Wiltshire, Cowan, and their collaborators confront Project Austerity's culture of contempt and despair by recovering and asserting British theatre's history of critical refusal' 'Believe that 1960s theatre making is dead duck pass? Reader, best start re-thinking. Editor/authors Kim Wiltshire and Billy Cowan forge an original and powerfully mind-bending take across 50 years of radicalised performing. Essential territory for driving future performance toward politicised hope' 'Recommended'