: Theatres of the Left 1880-1935 (1985): Workers' Theatre Movements in Britain and America (Routledge Revivals: History Workshop Series)

by RaphaelSamuel (Author), EwanMacColl (Author), StuartCosgrove (Author), Ewan MacColl (Author), Raphael Samuel (Author), Stuart Cosgrove (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2018

  $44.91

  First published in 1985, this book examines how workers theatre movements intended their performances to be activist - perceiving art as a weapon of struggle and enlightenment - and an emancipatory act. An introductory study relates left-wing theatre groupings to the cultural narratives of contemporary British socialism. The progress of the Workers' Theatre Movement (1928-1935) is traced from simple realism to the most brilliant phase of its Russian and German development alongside which the parallel movements in the United States are also examined. A number of crucial texts are reprints as well as stage notes and glimpses of the dramaturgical controversies which accompanied them.