Introduction Post War West End Joan Littlewood and the Theatre Workshop The Explosion of New Writing  The Royal Court Theatre 20th Century Shakespeare  The Royal Shakespeare Company Peter Brook and Peter Hall The National Theatre Alternative Theatre Physical and Visual Theatre ‘In Yer Face’ Theatre

Oh, What a Lovely War!

The Theatre Workshop was created by a group of actors committed to a left wing ideology. Directed by Joan Littlewood they devised and commissioned plays by and about the working class in the UK. They experimented with physical approaches to characterisation drawing on the work of Rudolf Laban and drew many of their actors from non-theatrical backgrounds.

In 1953 Theatre Workshop moved to the derelict Theatre Royal in Stratford East, London. The actors lived in the dressing rooms and slowly redecorated the theatre between rehearsals.

Shelagh Delaney

Despite its commitment to bringing a diverse programme of work to the local community it was only after international recognition that the local council would consider funding. Their reworking of Volpone and Arden of Faversham were performed in Paris at the International Festival of Theatre in 1955 to much acclaim.

They also supported and promoted new writing, producing successful new works such as Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey and Brendan Behan’s The Quare Fellow which both transferred to the West End.

Uranium 235 programme

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The most famous Theatre Workshop production was the 1963 play Oh What a Lovely War! which eventually transferred to the West End and then Broadway. Despite a run of successful West End transfers from the Theatre Royal, Stratford East in the 1960s the theatre had to fight off the developers who tried to demolish it in the early 1970s.

The theatre is currently run by Philip Hedley and still has a strong community focus and is committed to promoting new and multi-cultural work.