Many well-known theatre people - Lionel Bart, Alfie
Bass, Michael Gambon, Bob Hoskins, David Kossoff, Warren Mitchell,
Bill Owen and Ted Willis among them - learned their skills at this
influential theatre which was the working people's most sustained
and successful contribution to British drama and one of the most
important and enduring initiatives in popular culture in the 1920s.
Unity Theatre was founded on 5th January 1936 by a
general meeting of the Rebel Players and Red Radio, left-wing
theatre groups derived from the Workers' Theatre Movement. WTM had
been founded in the 1920s under the influence of the artistic
movements arising from the Russian Revolution. Unity began as Unity
Theatre Club, an amateur theatre group as a way of avoiding
censorship by the Lord Chamberlain. A self-converted hall at
Britannia Street was used from 1936 until 1937. In order to be able
to expand their range of activities a new hall was converted in
Goldington Street, which opened in November 1937. In 1938 Paul
Robeson turned down several West End roles to appear in Plant in
the Sun for free, as all Unity's actors did at that time. From
1946 Unity also put on various touring shows by the Mobile group,
including those featuring the Amazons, a women's company. Unity
became a professional company in 1946 but reverted back to being an
amateur group in 1947. At this time they also established other
Unity groups in other UK cities including Glasgow and Merseyside.
They staged the world premieres of plays by Sean O'Casey and Arthur
Adamov and British premieres of plays by Jean-Paul Sartre, Maxim
Gorky and Bertolt Brecht. They also specialised in traditional
entertainment forms such as Music Hall shows. Unity's theatre burnt
down on 8 November 1975, putting a temporary end to activities.
There was a revival in the 1980s and 1990s with political plays such
as Major Minor and Red Roses for Me. The final Unity
production was in 1994.
Here are some of the people I met through attendance at Unity
Theatre productions, most of whom I know from other situations, such
as my membership of the Young Communist League and my writing for
the Challenge newspaper.
TED WILLIS
BILL ROWBOTHAM
ALFIE BASS