3. One & All! Article Swipe
YOU?
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· 2023
· Open Access
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· DOI: https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0329.05
· OA: W4387097360
The conditions of Thatcher’s 1980s exposes those on the Left to government attack. The miners, organised in the National Union of Mineworkers with Arthur Scargill as President, are perceived by Thatcher’s cabal as a primary enemy to be destroyed. The strike provoked by the government exposes divisions and hypocrisy in the UK Labour Movement. Nevertheless, the miners’ struggle constitutes a defence of communities and ways of life and there is huge support for them among socialists and large sections of the general public. To participate in this support is what our work is for. The aim is ‘efficacy’, an effect on the world beyond the theatre. Now we have to find our audience, amongst whom we could assume no prior knowledge of the social event of theatre. Our work will be for Cornish communities and will also be a working-class voice. Hard rock metal mining is a part of Cornwall—a fundamental aspect of how the Cornish see themselves. We will create a show to support the Miners’ Strike through the story of Cornish mining, in a form we call ‘cabaret documentary’. A39 will be a permanent research process. Part of the experiment is to find what we are as performers. We write and start rehearsing One & All! in the Crypt Unemployed and Community Centre in early 1985.
