Theatre

Trevor Griffiths: A share in revolutions

Playwright and screen-writer Trevor Griffiths uses his art to intervene politically in the events of our time. Born in Manchester in 1935 of Irish and Welsh descent, Griffiths is perhaps best-known for writing the original screenplay for Reds , Warren Beattie’s 1981 film about John Reed and the Bolshevik Revolution. His politically-acute work has stretched over more than four decades. During this time he has been concerned not only to explore moments of history which he sees as especially significant for the working-class, but also to render these “usable”. That is, to remind the class...

Living to some purpose. Thomas Paine and revolutions

Born in 1737 in Thetford, Norfolk, Thomas Paine was importantly involved in the American and French Revolutions. A radical democratic republican, his writings helped alter fundamentally the language of political discourse and contributed to re-shaping the consciousness of an emerging working class. His fifty-page pamphlet ‘Common Sense on Independence’ (1776) coalesced and focused arguments which fuelled the decision of America’s thirteen colonies to break from Britain. His ‘Rights of Man’ (1791-92) furthered the development of concepts of human rights and representative government. In ‘The...

Art, the grind, and the tutor

Review: The Pitmen Painters by Lee Hall (Lyttleton National Theatre) Lee Hall’s play has orbited the country with great acclaim following its initial run last year at the National. Hall, is most famous for writing the popular Billy Elliot. The Pitmen Painters another political fable of our times, although this time, it is true events which have inspired Hall’s work. The Pitmen Painters were a group of Ashington miners who in the 1930s organised their own “Art Appreciation Class”. The class did not appreciate the slides their hired tutor had brought and instead agreed to paint pictures...

The Missing Woman

Review of Her Naked Skin This is the first play written by a living woman to be staged at the Olivier (National Theatre). It is a love story set against the backdrop of the suffragist struggle of the early 20th century. The scene is set with the appropriate props — the sash, the placard, the banner, and shocking original footage of Emily Davison’s fatal leap in front of the King’s horse — before the characters are introduced to us one by one. Each have been imprisoned for crimes associated with their involvement in the Women’s Social and Political Union. At this point the play is both funny...

Brecht deserves attention

Matt Cooper reviews A Good Soul of Szechuan (at the Young Vic, London, until 28 June) In recent years there has been a renewed interest in works by the German Marxist playwright, Bertolt Brecht. This new translation of his A Good Soul of Szechuan has met with predictable abuse from the right wing press, but it is more surprising to see it attacked in the Observer by Nick Cohen for being Stalinist propaganda, and his plays therefore being of no worth. Nick Cohen is now best known for his assault on the anti-war left, What’s left, which under a veneer of attacking the right target (the SWP...

Heroines of revolution

The London socialist feminist reading group went to see Heroines of Revolution, a play by the New Factory of the Eccentric Actor. In a tiny community hall in Kentish Town, the play was performed moving around the room, with no separation between the audience and the actors. The play was a series of scenes from revolutionary history, with speeches and diary excerpts from well-known, and less well-known, women revolutionaries. It was a genuinely entertaining evening; I was moved aside at various points by Rosa Luxemburg and Vera Zasulich, and given the part (denoted by a badge) of a little known...

The General Strike as it was lived

Sacha Ismail reviews a play about the general strike, produced by New Factory of the Eccentric Actor. A couple of months ago I went to see a play at the Globe Theatre about the Chartists, called Holding Fire! It was disappointing despite some interesting elements and the basic thrill of seeing one of the major dramas of British working-class history acted out on stage. On 22 September, I got a similar thrill, but much more satisfaction and lasting enjoyment, from a play at Conway Hall about the 1926 General Strike. The play was free, clearly attempting to match its appeal to its message by...

Chartism in the open air

A play about the Chartists whose characters include the young Friedrich Engels? Don’t get too excited. Holding Fire, a new play being shown at the Globe Theatre on London’s Southbank as part of the “Renaissance and Revolution” series, depicts the last years of Chartism as a mass movement, opening in 1837 when debates between the reformist “moral force” wing and the revolutionary “physical force” wing were raging. Given how much working-class history is simply ignored in art, seeing these events and themes explored is thrilling at first. (This is particularly true due to the creative use the...

“Anti-Zionist” play will mark Holocaust Memorial Day: a drama of anti-semitic themes

By Stan Crooke In November of last year the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) hosted Gilad Atzmon at one of their fund-raising events. Apart from being a renowned jazz musician, Atzmon is also well-known for his own brand of anti-semitism. Atzmon has variously claimed, for example, that Israel is worse than Nazi Germany (“Israel is the ultimate evil rather than Nazi Germany”), that Jews control the world (“American Jews (in fact Zionists) do control the world”), and that Jews are Christ-killers (“the Jews were responsible for the killing of Jesus”). Now the SPSC is intending to...

And Shakespeare, which group was he in?

"In fact, every sect is religious." — Karl Marx Many years ago I read with riveted fascination a big book on the history of a controversy that has more than a little interest for citizens of a socialist movement that has reduced itself to a sprawling archipelago of self-sealing, self-intoxicating, self-blinding sects - the dispute about "Who wrote Shakespeare?". It was called Shakespeare's Lives, and written by S. Schoenbaum. The dispute has raged for well over a hundred years now and rages still. Shakespeare wrote "Shakespeare", you say? But very little is known about William Shakespeare of...

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