Agitprop and Workers’ Theatre

Ian Saville

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Definitions:• From Lenin (What is to be Done?) and

Plekhanov• Agitation:

1 idea to many – using emotional material to get people active

• Propaganda:Propagates an ideology – many ideas to a smaller number.Explaining the world in the light of ideas.

• Term “Agitprop” coined by Soviet CC in 1920s• Art as a weapon• Negative term?

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History of Agitprop• Developed in:• Russia• Germany• USA• Britain• Korea, France, Japan etc. etc

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Russia• Poster Art -

Mayakovsky• Meyerhold • Blue Blouse Movement• Literacy programmes –

living newspapers• Agit Trains (see video)• Mass spectacles (see

video)• Changes in the 1930s

–Socialist Realism Agitational poster by Mayakovsky

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Germany• The political background –

1918 uprisings and near revolution.• The theatrical background –

Antecedents in 19th CenturyExpressionist theatre: Buchner, Wedekind, Kaiser, Toller, early Brecht.

• Piscator – Red Revel Revue 1924.• Growth of Workers’ Theatre Troupes in

Weimar Republic – “The Red Megaphones”. See Film.

• Importance of professional theatre workers. Brecht, Piscator, Wolf etc. Brecht’s work with amateur groups in exile – Fear and Misery, How much is your Iron etc.

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Britain• Pre WW1 – Actresses’ Franchise League• 1926 Founding of Hackney Labour

Dramatic Group (later Hackney People’s Players, then Hackney group of the Workers’ Theatre Movement) – group stages adaptation of Tressell’s Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

• 1929 – 1933 Growth of Workers’ Theatre Movement. WTM affiliated to the International Union of Revolutionary Theatres.

• 1931 – Ewan MacColl forms Manchester Red Megaphones, tours shows to demonstrations in Manchester and Salford.

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Red Megaphones performing to a Mayday

demonstration in Preston, 1932

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Britain 2

• Weaknesses of British WTM –Artistic – Esp. lack of professionals(only Andre Van Gyseghem and a very few others)Political – Relationship to Labour Party

• Participated in International Olympiad, Moscow 1933 – by then political and artistic line was changing

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USA• Great Depression from 1929• Agitprop from the immigrant

communities – Proletbuehne• Michael Gold’s Strike• Langston Hughes• Eugene O’Neill• Group Theatre – Odets,

Theatre Union• 1935 – Federal Theater

Project (part of FDR’s Works Progress Administration) starts presenting Living Newspapers

• Involvement of Hallie Flanagan as director 1935-9

• Politics changes after 1946

Living Newspaper One Third of a Nation by Arthur Arent, presented by FTP

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AgitProp characteristics 1:• Politics is the purpose of theatre,

not its subject. Theatre is used as a means of organising.

• Theatre designed to appeal to the masses.

• But not “bringing art to the masses” as with ILP Theatre Guild or Volksbuhne

• Context: not in purpose-built theatres, but on the street, in meetings, at demonstrations

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AgitProp Characteristics 2• A propertyless theatre for the

propertyless class – theatre must be portable and easy to stage (nevertheless Piscator incorporated technical innovations.)

• Anti-naturalistic• Mass Speaking

SlogansEnd with demands

• Meerut

15Meerut, by Charlie Mann.

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Agitprop Characteristics 3• Use of popular theatre forms:

Cartoon styleparodiesmusiccomedyBut some forms of popular culture could be frowned upon. (Music hall, Jazz)

• Action among the audience:Red Revel Revue,Blue BlouseStrike!Waiting for Lefty etc.Scottsboro Ltd

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The influence of Agitprop• Britain:

Unity TheatreTheatre Workshop (Ewan MacColl and Joan Littlewood)Radical Theatre of the 1960s and 1970s:

7:84CastRed LadderBroadsideSocialist

Magic?

•Modern West End: Billy Elliot

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Influences 2

• Via Brecht / Piscator etc. – much modern theatre

• African, S. American Theatre, theatre in middle east.

• Advertising?

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Conclusions

• Agitprop – positive or negative? Is it still useful?

• Theatre is assigned a role outside of art

• Incidentally: theatre creates a sense of community