2. Into A39 Article Swipe
YOU?
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· 2023
· Open Access
·
· DOI: https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0329.04
· OA: W4387097334
After parting with Miracle Theatre comes a period reviewing the significance of that experience in the light of British art, class and culture, and the need to express political commitment and class identity in relation to the developing history of the Miners’ Strike. What is contemporary theatre? How is it so literally exclusive, its institutions and assumptions reserved so determinedly to the middle classes? What is the significance of British state obsession with William Shakespeare? The discovery of the Plen an Gwari and Ordinalia traditions reveal a history of Cornish popular engagement with theatre, and theatre’s possibilities as a medium that can defy dominant power structures and interests are investigated. Two ex-members of Miracle form an alliance with two members of Falmouth-based unemployed workers’ theatre group Roll Up, and A39 Theatre Group is formed. The writings of John McGrath in relation to 7:84 Theatre Company suggest forms for a practice that can disseminate socialist ideas and working-class perspectives to support the Strike.
