Unity Theatre, London
| Address | Goldington St London UK |
|---|---|
| Current use | Redeveloped for housing |
| Closed | 1975 |
| Years active | 1936–1975 |
The Unity Theatre was a theatre club formed in 1936, and initially based in St Judes Hall, Britannia Street, Somers Town, London NW1. In 1937 it moved to a former chapel in Goldington Street, also in Somers Town in the London Borough of Camden. Although the theatre was destroyed by fire in 1975 productions continued sporadically until 1994 when the site was sold for social housing. Unity Mews is today on the site and a bronze plaque commemorates the theatre. It had links to the Left Book Club Theatre Guild and the Communist Party of Great Britain. By the end of the theatre's first decade, it had spawned 250 branches throughout Britain.
The theatre grew from the Workers' Theatre Movement, formed in the East End of London. This was an attempt to bring contemporary social and political issues to a working class audience; it introduced plays by, about and for workers. The company used agitprop theatre techniques to highlight the suffering of unemployment and hunger marches in the Great Depression and to challenge the rise of Nazism in Germany and Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists. They sought to show the republican struggle in Spain.
The company was notable for pioneering new dramatic forms, such as company-devised documentary pieces, 'Living Newspapers' and satirical pantomimes, including Babes in the Wood (whose cast included Bill Owen, Mark Cheney, Vida Hope, Alfie Bass and Una Brandon-Jones), Plant In The Sun (starring Paul Robeson, along with Alfie Bass). The improvisational technique brought them into conflict with the Lord Chamberlain's Office, who retained the right to approve theatre scripts under the Theatres Act 1843. Nevertheless, the company managed to present important works throughout the 1930s and audiences suspicious of politics as usual, and tired of the light and fluffy entertainments designed for the upper classes, responded. There was a ban on theatre at its outbreak, but once lifted the theatre remained active throughout World War II. The company also provided groups of entertainers to tour factories and air-raid shelters.
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