Theatre

I am a playwright. I show
What I have seen.
In the man markets
I have seen how men are traded. That
I show, I, the playwright.

Bertolt Brecht

Saturday, 03 February 2024 10:47

Banner Theatre: Working-class culture for a change!

Written by Rebecca Hillman

in Theatre

One of our country's longest running political theatre groups, Banner have dedicated their time over 50 years to trade union causes and working-class issues, and the power of working-class culture. The workshop is called Banner Theatre: Working Class Culture for a change! It will take place on Zoom on 16/02/2024…

Saturday, 09 December 2023 09:34

Together for a better world! Theatre of the Oppressed and the Landless Workers’ Movement:

Written by Rebecca Hillman

in Theatre

I am currently leading a theatre project called Performing Resistance: the role of theatre and performance in 21st century workers’ movements. The aim is to create new links between artists and workers' movements in Brazil, India, North America, and the UK. Project workshops, and a website and archive (under construction) …

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Monday, 30 October 2023 10:45

Sean O'Casey, Ireland's greatest working-class playwright

in Theatre

Written by Jenny Farrell

Paul O'Brien, the first Irish critic to publish a full-length political biography of Sean O’Casey from a left-wing perspective, talks to Jenny Farrell about some largely unknown aspects of the first proletarian dramatist of international significance writing in English. Despite four major biographies in existence, O’Brien felt that “they offered…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Monday, 09 October 2023 12:23

Sean O'Casey: Political Activist and Writer

in Theatre

Written by Jenny Farrell

Jenny Farrell reviews Sean O’Casey: Political Activist and Writer by Paul O’Brien Anybody who has come across the work of independent scholar and critic Paul O’Brien knows that his interest lies in the radical tradition of literature and history. He came to my attention with his book Shelley and Revolutionary…

James Connolly

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Friday, 29 September 2023 11:36

Holberrys

in Theatre

Written by Culture Matters

Holberrys is a play about two Sheffield Chartists, Samuel and Mary Holberry, who helped organise the betrayed ‘physical force’ insurrection in the city in January 1840. Samuel, a distillery worker, former agricultural worker and ex-soldier who had served in Ireland in the suppression of the Ribbonmen rebellion in 1833, and…

Chartists Newport

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Saturday, 16 September 2023 14:46

Dramatising Revolution: Review of a trilogy of Sean O'Casey's plays

in Theatre

Written by Jenny Farrell

Seán O’Casey – the first proletarian dramatist writing in English – made his theme the struggle for the emancipation of the Irish people, and by extension of all working people. In Ireland, O’Casey is (unfairly) best known for his first three plays, examining the Irish working class at key moments…

Juno and the Paycock Shadow of a Gunman The Plough and the Stars

Thursday, 10 August 2023 09:42

Fierce and funny political theatre: 'England & Son' at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Written by Mike Quille

in Theatre

He’s done it again! A few years ago, Ed Edwards exploded into Edinburgh with ‘A Political History of Smack and Crack’, performed at the Fringe Festival. It was a brilliant piece of political theatre, setting personal stories of drug addiction in Eighties Britain against the background of brutal Tory policies…

A Political History of Smack and Crack’ Mark Thomas Malayan Emergency

Wednesday, 19 July 2023 15:49

England and Son

Written by Culture Matters

in Theatre

England and Son is a one-man play written specifically for the political comedian Mark Thomas by award-winning playwright Ed Edwards (The Political History of Smack and Crack). It's a heartbreaking but funny horror story in which all the horrors are real. Prepare for Mark to take you on a epic…

Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Monday, 03 July 2023 08:44

Blood, Gold and Oil

Written by Jan Woolf

in Theatre

From the Arab Revolt of World War One, a modern hero is constructed: The brilliant, flawed figure of Lawrence of Arabia. His legacy is as complex as his psyche. A museum. Present day. A curator puts the finishing touches to her final exhibition while its subject - seemingly summoned by…

Saturday, 15 April 2023 07:59

Blood, Gold and Oil: "We fought on a lie"

Written by Jan Woolf

in Theatre

Rootball & Chromolume Theatre present Blood, Gold and Oil Written by Jan Woolf | Directed by Isaac Bernier-Doyle. Upstairs at the Gatehouse, Highgate, London, 25 – 30 April 2023 From the Arab revolt of the First World War, a modern hero is constructed: the complex, flawed figure of Lawrence of…

Iraq war