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
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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
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Mayakovsky
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Germany
• The political background –
1918 uprisings and near revolution.
• The theatrical background –
Antecedents in 19th Century
Expressionist 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
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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. 8
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
Slogans
End with demands
• Meerut
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Meerut, by Charlie Mann.
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Agitprop Characteristics 3
• Use of popular theatre forms:
Cartoon style
parodies
music
comedy
But some forms of popular culture could be
frowned upon. (Music hall, Jazz)
• Action among the audience:
Red Revel Revue,
Blue Blouse
Strike!
Waiting for Lefty etc.
Scottsboro Ltd
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The influence of Agitprop
• Britain:
Unity Theatre
Theatre Workshop
(Ewan MacColl and
Joan Littlewood)
Radical Theatre of
the 1960s and
1970s:
7:84
Cast
Red Ladder
Broadside
Socialist 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
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