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A Thumbnail Theatre Chronology
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1929
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Ewan joined an amateur drama group, the Clarion Players, which later changed
its name to the Workers' Theatre Movement. He took part in several productions,
including The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropist, Upton Sinclair's Singing
Jailbirds, and Ernst Toller's Machine Wreckers.
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1931
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He formed an agit-prop group, the Red Megaphones, and for the next two years
performed political sketches on the streets of Salford and Manchester.
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1933
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He was joined by Joan Littlewood with whom he set up the Theatre of Action in
1934. He wrote and co-produced John Bullion.
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1934
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Newsboy, a political dance-drama, the creation of the New York Laboratory
Theatre, was given its British premiere at the Round House, Ancoats. For
MacColl and Littlewood, it was a seminal piece and almost everything they did
in the next fifteen years was influenced by it.
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1935
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Littlewood and MacColl gave Waiting for Lefty (Clifford Odets) its British
premiere at the Houldesworth Hall, Deansgate, Manchester.
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1936
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With Littlewood, he co-produced Schlumberg's Miracle at Verdun for the Peace
Pledge Union at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, Manchester. From the large body of
amateur actors, artists and technicians who worked with them on this project,
they formed Theatre Union.
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1937
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Theatre Union's first production: Lope de Vega's Fuente Ovejuņa (The Sheep
Well).
Littlewood began taking over more and more of the production while MacColl
undertook to find suitable plays and re-worked them to fit the theatre's
resources. He also acted as a chorus-master and trained the company.
He adapted Piscator's version of The Good Soldier Schweik and took part in the
production of it at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, Manchester.
Later in the year, he adapted the Lysistrata of Aristophanes, renaming the play
Operation Olive Branch.
He also wrote and produced two pageants dealing with the struggle of the
Spanish people against fascism.
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1939 - 40
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He wrote and acted in Last Edition, a living newspaper dealing with the events
which led up to World War II.
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1945
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With Joan Littlewood, Rosalie Williams, Howard Goomey, David Scase,
Gerry Raffles and Bill Davidson, he formed Theatre Workshop. From this time on
there was no more co-production. Joan became sole producer and Ewan became
dramaturge, art director and resident dramatist. He wrote two one-hour pieces
for the new season: Johnny Noble and The Flying Doctor. He began work on
Uranium 235.
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1946
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He wrote the songs for a Theatre Workshop production of Lorca's Love of Don
Perlimplin for Bellisa in Her Garden. He extended Uranium 235 to a full-length
play, which became a permanent item in the company's repertoire. It was played
throughout Britain and finally brought to the West End by Michael Redgrave and
Sam Wanamaker.
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1947
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Rogues' Gallery opens at the Library Theatre, Manchester.
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1948
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Operation Olive Branch plays at the Library Theatre (Manchester) prior to
opening at the Edinburgh Festival.
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1949
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Landscape With Chimneys is written.
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1950
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The Other Animals is premiered at the Library Theatre, Manchester
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1952
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The Travellers was given its premiere at the Edinburgh Festival. Also a new
adaptation of Good Soldier Schweik which, after playing in several European
capitols, reached the West End and played at the New Theatre in St. Martin's
Lane.
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NOTE: Theatre Workshop undertook annual tours of Norway and Sweden. It made a
3-week tour of Czechoslovakia; one tour of West Germany; performances in Moscow
and Warsaw; fifteen tours of Great Britain and four Edinburgh Festivals. Many
of MacColl's plays enjoyed long runs in the eastern bloc. Theatre Workshop
ceased to exist in the summer of 1976.
Dramatic works
John Bullion
Written in collaboration with Joan Littlewood, this is an experimental
political satire which combines agit-prop and expressionism. It was produced at
the Round House at Ancoats in 1934.
Last Edition
A living newspaper, written by MacColl and performed by Theatre Union,
Manchester, 1940
The Flying Doctor
A comedy written for Theatre Workshop in the pre- 1940s, based on the theme of
Il Medica Volante
of the Commedia dell 'arte and Moliere's
Le Medecin Volant
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The Long Winter
(a.k.a.
Blitz Song
) A wartime tragedy, based on the theme of the Agamemnon. Written for Theatre
Workshop in the 1940s
Johnny Noble.
A ballad opera. Songs and text by Ewan MacColl. Produced by Joan Littlewood
for Theatre Workshop, 1945. Published in Agit-Prop to Theatre Workshop.
Hell is What You Make It.
A satiric comedy. Produced by Unity Theatre, London, 1945.
Uranium 235
. An episodic one-hour play with music (later expanded to full length) dealing
with the connections between atomic energy and the Bomb. Written for and
produced by Theatre Workshop. MacColl updated this play in 1988.
Rogues' Gallery
(German title:
Das Krumme Gewerbe
) A comedy (inspired by Ben Jonson's
The Devil is an Ass
) written for Theatre Workshop and produced by Joan Littlewood, 1947. Was
performed extensively in Germany.
Operation Olive Branch
A free adaptation of the
Lysistrata
of Aristophanes. Written for Theatre Workshop in the pre-1940s and produced by
Joan Littlewood, 1947.
The Other Animals.
A Faustian tragedy, an attempt to explore expressionistic theatre: Written for
Theatre Workshop and produced by Joan Littlewood, 1947. Published in Agit -Prop
to Theatre Workshop
Landscape With Chimneys
(a.k.a.
Paradise Street
) An episodic play written for Theatre Workshop and produced by Joan
Littlewood, 1951.
songs:
Dirty Old Town
House-Hungry Blues
The Travellers
A political thriller, written for Theatre Workshop and produced by Joan
Littlewood, 1952. Translated into German, Polish, Russian and produced in all
those countries.
The Good Soldier Schweik
Adapted from Jaroslav Hasek's novel and produced by Joan Littlewood for Theatre
Workshop in 1953. Translated into Czech and German. Played extensively on the
continent
You're Only Young Once
. A folk tale with music, written for Theatre Workshop to take to the Warsaw
Youth Festival, 1953.
songs:
The Fireman's Not For Me
Space Girl's Song
The War Game
Johnny's Going to Warsaw
See You in Warsaw, Johnny
They're A' Comin'
So Long at the Fair
(German title: Rummelplatz) Written in 1957 and produced at the Maxim Gorki
Theatre, Berlin, 1961. It enjoyed a very long run.
song:
Five Fingers
St. George and the Dragon
A modern mumming play, written for a group of students at a teaching course in
Bristol, ca. 1964.
songs:
St. George's Song
Georgie's Dead
Ours the Fruit
Written to celebrate an anniversary of the Co-operative Movement. Performed at
the Drury Lane Theatre, July 1966(1967?).
song:
Co-operative Marriage
The Shipmaster
A play about an aging sea captain who cannot make the transition from sail to
steam, a man whom technology has rendered redundant. It mirrored Ewan's
feelings about his own aging self and about the state of the world. Produced by
the Library Theatre, Manchester, 1981.
Plays printed abroad
Operation Olive Branch
. German title: Unternehmen Olzweig. Freely adapted from the Lysistrata of
Aristophanes. Translated by Anne Maria Weber. Published by Verlag Bruno
Henschel und Sohn, Berlin, 1948.
Uranium 235
. German translation by Rolf Italiander. Published by Verlag Bruno Henschel
und Sohn, Berlin, 1949.
The Travellers
Polish translation (title: Pociag Mozna Zatrzymac) by Maria Szietynska and
Tadeusz. Published by Czytelnik Spoldzielnia Wydawnicza, Warsaw, 1956
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