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20240328T141323
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9781800649156
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After the Miners’ Strike
A39 and Cornish Political Theatre versus Thatcher’s Britain: Volume 1
1
A01
Paul Farmer
Paul Farmer first worked in Cornish arts as an actor/musician/bus driver with Miracle Theatre, then co-founded A39 Theatre Group, later becoming artistic director. As a freelance playwright he wrote a number of plays for Kneehigh Theatre Company and for Cornish community events and celebrations. During the mid-late 1990s Farmer was one of those who established the Cornish film industry, as a writer, director and producer. An increasingly experimental film practice would lead to a number of projects exploring digital image work in a literary context. He was a founder member and company manager of the live literature collective Scavel An Gow, then one of the three artists who represented Cornwall in the European Regions of Culture initiative, leading into work in a fine art context in performance, moving image and installation. He holds an Honours degree in Theatre from Dartington College of Arts and a Masters in Fine Art: contemporary practice from University College Falmouth. From 2014 to 2022 he was a lecturer in film and theatre at Falmouth University. In 2000 he was made a Bard of Gorsedh Kernow ‘for services to Cornish arts’.
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A15
Rebecca Hillman
Rebecca Hillman’s work as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Communications, Drama and Film at the University of Exeter is informed by her involvement with trade unions and political campaign groups. She enjoys teaching her module Activism and Performance to examine with students how social and industrial movements use performance and other cultural forms to make change in the world. Her recent publications explore theatre as a political organising tool, working-class theatre, housing and activism, and collaborative efforts to strengthen links between artists and the labour movement. Rebecca is the Principle Investigator on the AHRC Fellowship Performing Resistance: Theatre and Performance in 21st Century Workers’ Movements. She is writing a book based on some of this work, to be published with Bloomsbury in 2025.
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A01
Mark Kilburn
Mark Kilburn was born in Birmingham and lived for a number of years in Scandinavia. Between 1996–98 he was writer in residence at the City Open Theatre, Århus, Denmark, and in 2002 he was awarded a Canongate prize for new fiction. In 2012 he won the ABCtales poetry competition. Subsequent prizes include first place in the Cerasus Poetry Olympics, 2020. His first novel, Hawk Island, was originally published by ElectronPress (currently out of print). His poetry collection, Beautiful Fish, is available from Amazon (print) and Cerasus Poetry (digital). His latest novel, The Castle, set in Falmouth during the English Civil Wars, is available from Amazon in paperback, hardback, and digital editions.
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eng
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282
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23
1980s
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1990s
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A39
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AN
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ART060000
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Cornwall
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history
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miners' strike
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Performing Arts
04
PN3307.G7
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political theatre
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Thatcherism
12
AFKP
10
ART037000
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History
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Economics, Politics and Sociology
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HIS015070
12
WQH
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1DBKEWC
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HIS054000
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J
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JP
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JPR
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1DBKE
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HBJ
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3JJP
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03
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In this rich memoir, the first of two volumes, Paul Farmer traces the story of A39, the Cornish political theatre group he co-founded and ran from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. Farmer offers a unique insight into A39’s creation, operation, and artistic practice during a period of convulsive political and social change.
The reader is plunged into the national miners’ strike and the collapse of Cornish tin mining, the impact of Thatcherism and ‘Reaganomics’, and the experience of touring Germany on the brink of reunification, alongside the influence on A39 of writers Bertolt Brecht, John McGrath and Keith Johnstone. Farmer, a former bus driver turned artistic director, details the theatre group’s inception and development as it fought to break down social barriers, attract audiences, and survive with little more than a beaten-up Renault 12, a photocopier and two second-hand stage lights at its disposal: the book traces the progress from these raw materials to the development of an integrated community theatre practice for Cornwall.
Farmer’s candour and humour enliven this unique insight into 1980s theatre and politics. It will appeal to anyone with an interest in theatre history, life in Cornwall, and the relationship between performance and society during a turbulent era.
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Authors’ Biographies
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
1. A Tour through the Miners’ Strike
2. Into A39
3. One & All!
4. Street Theatre and Cabaret
5. Touring One & All!
6. A39 International
7. A39 and the Tin Crisis
8. A39 Into 1986: The State of Things
9. Building the New Show
10. ‘How much easier it is to honour the dead than to value the living’—The Tale of Trevithick’s Tower
Plays
11. One & All! An unofficial history of Cornish tin mining
12. The Tale of Trevithick’s Tower
Bibliography
Index
Open Book Publishers
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Open Book Publishers
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20230927
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WORLD
06
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9781800649125
06
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9781800649132
06
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9781800649149
06
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9781800649187
06
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9781800649170
06
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9781800649156
WORLD
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Open Book Publishers
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02
5.99
GBP
WORLD