Sheffield’s tenants’ theatres in the 1980s: theatre, community and activism

ABSTRACT

This essay offers an account of the tenants’ activist theatres, which developed in Sheffield, UK, in the 1980s, and the role played by myself, and collaborator John Goodchild, in their development. A response by working-class communities to the devastating effects of globalisation, rapid de-industrialisation, and mass unemployment, the theatres were a contribution to local and national campaigns. The essay sets out the political and social context in which the theatres arose, beginning with the election of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of a Conservative government in 1979. The key themes of what came to be known as Thatcherism, defined by a focus on free market economics, de-regulation, and attacks on trade unions and local government powers, are then detailed. These attacks gave rise to national and local resistance in the forms of strikes and campaigns, which provided the context for the emergence of Manor Campaign Theatre, the first of the tenants’ groups. The main body of the essay offers a narrative of the tenants’ theatres, their processes and organisation, and their role within campaigns around housing, welfare, credit unions, and water poverty. The conclusion connects these struggles with current injustices, sourced in the still-unfolding impacts of Thatcherism.

KEYWORDS:

• Theatre
• community
• activism
• campaign politics
• thatcherism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Blunkett served on Sheffield City Council from 1970 to 1987, when he was elected as the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside. Between 1997 and 2010 he served in successive Labour governments as Education Secretary, Home Secretary and Secretary for Works and Pensions. He joined the House of Lords in 2015.

2. Anthony Wedgewood Benn (1925–2014) was a British politician and noted diarist. He was a Member of Parliament for 47 years, and served as a cabinet minister in Labour governments in the 1960s and 1970s. Initially seen as a moderate, he became, in the 1980s, the figurehead for the left wing of the party, and was very active during the 1984–85 miners’ strike, using his political influence as the MP for Chesterfield to support the strikers’ cause.

3. Maternity and death grants were replaced by repayable loans, further eroding the income of the poorest.

4. Goodwin et al stress the critical role that emotion plays in activism, contributing to a power derived from ‘a sense of solidarity among members of a social movement itself, suggesting bonds of trust, loyalty, affection’ (2001, 9).

5. Hire purchase is an arrangement for buying consumer goods, whereby the buyer makes an initial down payment and pays the balance, plus interest, in instalments.

6. Housing Associations in the UK are private but state-regulated non-profit organisations that draw on both public and private funding to build and manage houses and flats for rent.

7. Introduced in 1980 by the Conservative government, the Right to Buy scheme allowed local authority tenants to purchase their homes at a heavily discounted price.

8. The 1977 Rents Act protected tenants by preventing property owners from charging unfair rents, enshrined a right to long-term occupancy, and gave them additional legal protections against eviction.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bill McDonnell

Bill McDonnell is a Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance in the School of English at the University of Sheffield, UK. He spent the period 1975 – 2002 as a collaborator in a range of left-wing, activist theatres, including a period with CAST (1980–83). Most of this work (1983–2002) was concentrated in the inner city estates of Sheffield, UK, and in republican Belfast in the north of Ireland.