Littlewood

JOAN LITTLEWOOD (1914 - 2003)

Joan Littlewood co-founded Theatre Union with her husband Jimmie Miller (later famous in the folk-song world as Ewan MacColl). As an experimental left-wing theatre in Manchester, it became the Theatre Workshop in 1945 and toured the country. The theatre was far ahead of metropolitan ventures in appreciating the continental influences of Piscator and Brecht. Joan and Jimmie translated Hasek's Good Soldier Schweik - and wrote a ballad about the lead miners of Weardale.

In one section of her engaging Joan's Book, she describes life with the theatre in the 1940s. A short version of Jimmie's play Uranium 235, a kind of 'historical pageant for the advancement of science' was put on at the People's Theatre, Newcastle in January 1946 to general applause. At the end, the stage was crowded with young people, eager to start their own 'workshops'. Joan promised to give classes on the weekend, and she and her friends subsequently maintained contact with the Newcastle drama scene. The young people showed the cast round Newcastle and introduced them to genuine calypso, all the rage in Newcastle at the time. Joan's company, much encouraged, then set out to tour the mining towns of the North East.

On a later occasion, Joan writes that 'The North East was stimulating. We stayed in the homes of scientists from the ICI labs, coalminers, chemists, steel-workers, dockers.' The company played at Aycliffe, Durham and Blyth (at the Miners' Hall). In Whitley Bay 'there was no hospitality and we were all in the same awful bed-and-breakfast'. There wasn't a chip-shop to be found, it seems.

While in the Middlesbrough area, the company stayed with Colonel and Lady Pennyman at Ormesby Hall where Gerry Raffles was tactless enough to walk from the table at dinner and scrape his fishbones into the fire. Ruth Pennyman had been in Barcelona until the bitter end of the Spanish Civil War and brought orphaned children back to Britain. Obsessed with the theatre, Ruth asked 'What is a good actor?' Joan replied: 'Part priest, part poet, part clown'.

Later, in Newcastle, Joan describes the American folk-singer Alan Lomax, and recited to him the 'Ballad of Bamborough Castle' and spoke of the Romans in Britain. Lomax asked to be taken to the Roman Wall, but this was merely a device to mask a seduction attempt.

Richard Eyre in his memoirs of his time as director of the National Theatre, recalls Joan writing to him:' I really don't know what you are up to. Whatever it is, you'd do better to bomb that building.'

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
JOAN LITTLEWOOD (1914 - 2003) Joan Littlewood co-founded Theatre Union with her husband Jimmie Miller (later famous in the folk-song world as Ewan MacColl). As an experimental left-wing theatre in Manchester, it became the Theatre Workshop in 1945 and toured the country. The theatre was far ahead of metropolitan ventures in appreciating the continental influences of Piscator and Brecht. Joan and Jimmie translated Hasek's Good Soldier Schweik - and wrote a ballad about the lead miners of Weardale. In one section of her engaging Joan's Book, she describes life with the theatre in the 1940s. A short version of Jimmie's play Uranium 235, a kind of 'historical pageant for the advancement of science' was put on at the People's Theatre, Newcastle in January 1946 to general applause. At the end, the stage was crowded with young people, eager to start their own 'workshops'. Joan promised to give classes on the weekend, and she and her friends subsequently maintained contact with the Newcastle drama scene. The young people showed the cast round Newcastle and introduced them to genuine calypso, all the rage in Newcastle at the time. Joan's company, much encouraged, then set out to tour the mining towns of the North East. On a later occasion, Joan writes that 'The North East was stimulating. We stayed in the homes of scientists from the ICI labs, coalminers, chemists, steel-workers, dockers.' The company played at Aycliffe, Durham and Blyth (at the Miners' Hall). In Whitley Bay 'there was no hospitality and we were all in the same awful bed-and-breakfast'. There wasn't a chip-shop to be found, it seems. While in the Middlesbrough area, the company stayed with Colonel and Lady Pennyman at Ormesby Hall where Gerry Raffles was tactless enough to walk from the table at dinner and scrape his fishbones into the fire. Ruth Pennyman had been in Barcelona until the bitter end of the Spanish Civil War and brought orphaned children back to Britain. Obsessed with the theatre, Ruth asked 'What is a good actor?' Joan replied: 'Part priest, part poet, part clown'. Later, in Newcastle, Joan describes the American folk-singer Alan Lomax, and recited to him the 'Ballad of Bamborough Castle' and spoke of the Romans in Britain. Lomax asked to be taken to the Roman Wall, but this was merely a device to mask a seduction attempt. Richard Eyre in his memoirs of his time as director of the National Theatre, recalls Joan writing to him:' I really don't know what you are up to. Whatever it is, you'd do better to bomb that building.'
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