Unity Theatre, London
Encyclopedia
The Unity Theatre was a theatre
club formed in 1936, and initially based in St Judes Hall, Britannia Street, Kings Cross, in 1937 they moved to a former chapel in Goldington Street, near St Pancras
, in the London Borough of Camden
. Although the theatre was destroyed by fire in 1975 productions continued sporadically until 1983. It had links to the Left Book Club
Theatre Guild and the Communist Party of Great Britain
. By the end of the theatre's first decade, it had spawned 250 branches throughout Britain.
. This was an attempt to bring contemporary social and political issues to a working class
audience; it introduced plays by, about and for workers. The company used agitprop theatre techniques to highlight the suffering of unemployment and hunger marches in the Great Depression
and to challenge the rise of Nazism
in Germany
and Oswald Mosley
's British Union of Fascists
. They sought to show the republican
struggle in Spain
.
The company was notable for pioneering new drama
tic forms, such as company-devised documentary pieces, 'Living Newspapers' and satirical pantomimes, including Babes in the Wood
(whose cast included Bill Owen
, Mark Cheney, Vida Hope
, Alfie Bass
and, Una Brandon-Jones), Plant In The Sun (starring Paul Robeson
, along with Alfie Bass). The improvisational technique brought them into conflict with the Lord Chamberlain's Office
, who retained the right to approve theatre scripts under the Theatres Act 1843
. Nevertheless, the company managed to present important works throughout the 1930s and audiences suspicious of politics as usual, and tired of the light and fluffy entertainments designed for the upper classes, responded. There was a ban on theatre at its outbreak, but once lifted the theatre remained active throughout World War II
. The company also provided groups of entertainers to tour factories and air-raid shelter
s.
There was also an associated Unity Theatre School. Unity was a volunteer theatre, neither fully amateur, nor professional,(apart from a short-lived professional company founded in 1946 by Ted Willis) and loosely linked to a national network. By the outbreak of World War II there were over 250 branches throughout the country. The end of theatrical censorship in 1968 meant that mainstream theatre could perform more radical plays, and the movement fell into decline, with the London theatre closing, after a fire in 1975. According to the New York Times, "...it finally expired in 1983 because it represented a spirit of old-fashioned opposition and could not find its place in a more strident and increasingly prosperous age." Attempts were made to revive the theatre in the late 1980s and early 1990s and for a while a studio theatre was created in Somers Town
but today whilst the Unity Theatre Trust continues in London, only the Unity Theatre, Liverpool
retains an active theatre under the Unity Theatre name. However Unity Theatre Cardiff has been in continuous existence since its formation in 1942. The company left the Unity Theatre movement in 1948 and the was re-named Everyman Theatre Cardiff. Despite leaving the movement the company continues to adhere to much of the Unity ethos and remains neither fully amateur nor professional.
's Waiting for Lefty
, Sean O'Casey
's The Star Turns Red (1940), Jean Paul Sartre’s Nekrassov (1956). The theatre helped popularise the plays of Maxim Gorky
.
Notable actors associated with Unity Theatre have included: Lionel Bart
, Alfie Bass
, Una Brandon-Jones, Michael Gambon
, Julian Glover
, Jack Grossman, Harry Landis
Michael Redgrave
, Herbert Lom
, Vida Hope
, Bob Hoskins
, David Kossoff
, Warren Mitchell
, Bill Owen, Eric Paice, Ted Willis, Roger Woddis
. Bart's earliest contributions were lyrics for the revue 'Turn It Up'. Bart also wrote the lyrics for an agitprop version of Cinderella and also wrote a revue
called Peacemeal and a play called Wally Pone for the group.
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
club formed in 1936, and initially based in St Judes Hall, Britannia Street, Kings Cross, in 1937 they moved to a former chapel in Goldington Street, near St Pancras
St Pancras, London
St Pancras is an area of London. For many centuries the name has been used for various officially-designated areas, but now is used informally and rarely having been largely superseded by several other names for overlapping districts.-Ancient parish:...
, in the London Borough of Camden
London Borough of Camden
In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough were already developed and had a total population of 96,795. This continued to rise swiftly throughout the 19th century, as the district became built up; reaching 270,197 in the middle of the century...
. Although the theatre was destroyed by fire in 1975 productions continued sporadically until 1983. It had links to the Left Book Club
Left Book Club
The Left Book Club, founded in 1936, was a key left-wing institution of the late 1930s and 1940s in the United Kingdom set up by Stafford Cripps, Victor Gollancz and John Strachey to revitalise and educate the British Left. The Club's aim was to "help in the struggle For world peace and against...
Theatre Guild and the Communist Party of Great Britain
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...
. By the end of the theatre's first decade, it had spawned 250 branches throughout Britain.
History
The theatre grew from the Workers' Theatre Movement, formed in the East End of LondonEast End of London
The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
. This was an attempt to bring contemporary social and political issues to a working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
audience; it introduced plays by, about and for workers. The company used agitprop theatre techniques to highlight the suffering of unemployment and hunger marches in the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and to challenge the rise of Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
in Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and Oswald Mosley
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
's British Union of Fascists
British Union of Fascists
The British Union was a political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley as the British Union of Fascists, in 1936 it changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists and then in 1937 to simply the British Union...
. They sought to show the republican
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
struggle in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
The company was notable for pioneering new drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
tic forms, such as company-devised documentary pieces, 'Living Newspapers' and satirical pantomimes, including Babes in the Wood
Babes in the Wood
Babes in the Wood is a traditional children's tale, as well as a popular pantomime subject. It has also been the name of some other unrelated works. The expression has passed into common language, referring to inexperienced innocents entering unawares into any potentially dangerous or hostile...
(whose cast included Bill Owen
Bill Owen
William John Owen Rowbotham MBE , better known as Bill Owen, was an English actor and songwriter.-Career:...
, Mark Cheney, Vida Hope
Vida Hope
-Selected filmography:* Champagne Charlie * English Without Tears * Hue and Cry * Nicholas Nickleby * It Always Rains on Sunday * Woman Hater * For Them That Trespass...
, Alfie Bass
Alfie Bass
Alfred Bass was an English actor. He was born in Bethnal Green, London, the youngest in a Jewish family with ten children; their parents had fled persecution in Russia...
and, Una Brandon-Jones), Plant In The Sun (starring Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
, along with Alfie Bass). The improvisational technique brought them into conflict with the Lord Chamberlain's Office
Lord Chamberlain's Office
The Lord Chamberlain's Office is a department within the British Royal Household. It is presently concerned with matters such as protocol, state visits, investitures, garden parties, the State Opening of Parliament, royal weddings and funerals. For example, in April 2005 it organised the wedding of...
, who retained the right to approve theatre scripts under the Theatres Act 1843
Theatres Act 1843
The Theatres Act 1843 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It amended the regime established under the Licensing Act 1737 for the licensing of the theatre in the UK, implementing the proposals made by a select committee of the House of Commons in 1832.Under the Licensing Act 1737 The...
. Nevertheless, the company managed to present important works throughout the 1930s and audiences suspicious of politics as usual, and tired of the light and fluffy entertainments designed for the upper classes, responded. There was a ban on theatre at its outbreak, but once lifted the theatre remained active throughout World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The company also provided groups of entertainers to tour factories and air-raid shelter
Air-raid shelter
Air-raid shelters, also known as bomb shelters, are structures for the protection of the civil population as well as military personnel against enemy attacks from the air...
s.
There was also an associated Unity Theatre School. Unity was a volunteer theatre, neither fully amateur, nor professional,(apart from a short-lived professional company founded in 1946 by Ted Willis) and loosely linked to a national network. By the outbreak of World War II there were over 250 branches throughout the country. The end of theatrical censorship in 1968 meant that mainstream theatre could perform more radical plays, and the movement fell into decline, with the London theatre closing, after a fire in 1975. According to the New York Times, "...it finally expired in 1983 because it represented a spirit of old-fashioned opposition and could not find its place in a more strident and increasingly prosperous age." Attempts were made to revive the theatre in the late 1980s and early 1990s and for a while a studio theatre was created in Somers Town
Somers Town, London
Somers Town, was named for Charles Cocks, 1st Baron Somers. The area in St Pancras, London, was originally granted by William III to John Somers, Lord Chancellor and Baron Somers of Evesham. It was to be strongly influenced by the three mainline north London railway termini: Euston , St...
but today whilst the Unity Theatre Trust continues in London, only the Unity Theatre, Liverpool
Unity Theatre, Liverpool
The Unity Theatre in Liverpool, England, was formed as the Merseyside Left Theatre in the 1930s. In 1944 it became Merseyside Unity Theatre....
retains an active theatre under the Unity Theatre name. However Unity Theatre Cardiff has been in continuous existence since its formation in 1942. The company left the Unity Theatre movement in 1948 and the was re-named Everyman Theatre Cardiff. Despite leaving the movement the company continues to adhere to much of the Unity ethos and remains neither fully amateur nor professional.
Notable writers and actors
Unity introduced new writers, both British and international, presenting Señora Carrara's Rifles (1938), the first Brecht play in Britain and premières of Clifford OdetsClifford Odets
Clifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, socialist, and social protester.-Early life:Odets was born in Philadelphia to Romanian- and Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Louis Odets and Esther Geisinger, and raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high...
's Waiting for Lefty
Waiting for Lefty
Waiting for Lefty is a 1935 play by American playwright Clifford Odets. Consisting of a series of related vignettes, the entire play is framed by the meeting of cab drivers who are planning a labor strike. The framing situation utilizes the audience as part of the meeting.While this was not the...
, Sean O'Casey
Seán O'Casey
Seán O'Casey was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.- Early life:...
's The Star Turns Red (1940), Jean Paul Sartre’s Nekrassov (1956). The theatre helped popularise the plays of Maxim Gorky
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
.
Notable actors associated with Unity Theatre have included: Lionel Bart
Lionel Bart
Lionel Bart was a writer and composer of British pop music and musicals, best known for creating the book, music and lyrics for Oliver!-Early life:...
, Alfie Bass
Alfie Bass
Alfred Bass was an English actor. He was born in Bethnal Green, London, the youngest in a Jewish family with ten children; their parents had fled persecution in Russia...
, Una Brandon-Jones, Michael Gambon
Michael Gambon
Sir Michael John Gambon, CBE is an Irish actor who has worked in theatre, television and film. A highly respected theatre actor, Gambon is recognised for his roles as Philip Marlowe in the BBC television serial The Singing Detective, as Jules Maigret in the 1990s ITV serial Maigret, and as...
, Julian Glover
Julian Glover
Julian Wyatt Glover is a British actor best known for such roles as General Maximilian Veers in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, the Bond villain Aristotle Kristatos in For Your Eyes Only, and Walter Donovan in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.-Personal life:Glover was born in...
, Jack Grossman, Harry Landis
Harry Landis
Harry Landis is a British actor. He has had a long career in British television and film and is known for playing cockney-Jewish roles....
Michael Redgrave
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...
, Herbert Lom
Herbert Lom
Herbert Lom is a Czech film actor, best known for his role as former Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther movie series.-Life and career:...
, Vida Hope
Vida Hope
-Selected filmography:* Champagne Charlie * English Without Tears * Hue and Cry * Nicholas Nickleby * It Always Rains on Sunday * Woman Hater * For Them That Trespass...
, Bob Hoskins
Bob Hoskins
Robert William "Bob" Hoskins, Jr. is an English actor known for playing Cockney rough diamonds, psychopaths and gangsters, in films such as The Long Good Friday , and Mona Lisa , and lighter roles in family films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Hook .- Early life :Hoskins was born in Bury St...
, David Kossoff
David Kossoff
David Kossoff was a British actor. Following the death of his son Paul, a rock musician, he became an anti-drug campaigner...
, Warren Mitchell
Warren Mitchell
Warren Mitchell is an English actor who rose to initial prominence in the role of bigoted cockney Alf Garnett in the BBC television sitcom Till Death Us Do Part , and its sequels Till Death... and In Sickness and in Health , all of which were written by Johnny Speight...
, Bill Owen, Eric Paice, Ted Willis, Roger Woddis
Roger Woddis
Roger Woddis was a writer and humorous poet. One of his most famous poems, Ethics for Everyman, deals with double-morality of ethical principles....
. Bart's earliest contributions were lyrics for the revue 'Turn It Up'. Bart also wrote the lyrics for an agitprop version of Cinderella and also wrote a revue
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
called Peacemeal and a play called Wally Pone for the group.
External links
- Theatre Museum on Unity Theatre
- Unity Theatre archive
- Everyman Theatre Cardiff
- Everyman Open Air Theatre Festival
- New York Times article from 28 January 1990
- Information about the history of Unity Theatre
- Review of a film about the theatre
- Unity Theatre Records, 1931-1960 at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Special Collections Research Center