Joan Maud Littlewood was a British theatre director, noted for her work in developing the left-wing
Theatre WorkshopTheatre Workshop is a theatre group noted for their director, Joan Littlewood. Many actors of the 1950s and 1960s received their training and first exposure with the company...
. She has been called "The Mother of Modern Theatre".
She also conceived and developed along with architect
Cedric PriceCedric Price was an English architect and influential teacher and writer on architecture.The son of an architect, Price was born in Stone, Staffordshire and studied architecture at Cambridge University Cedric Price (11 September 1934 – 10 August 2003) was an English architect and influential...
the Fun Palace, an experimental model of participatory social environment that, although never realized, has become an important influence in Architecture of the 20th and 21st Centuries.
Early years
Littlewood was born at
StockwellStockwell is a district in inner south west London, England, located in the London Borough of Lambeth.It is situated south south-east of Charing Cross. Brixton, Clapham, Vauxhall and Kennington all border Stockwell...
,
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and trained as an actress at
RADARada is the term for "council" or "assembly"borrowed by Polish from the Low Franconian "Rad" and later passed into the Czech, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages....
but left after an unhappy start and moved to
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
in 1934 where she met folksinger Jimmie Miller who would later become known as
Ewan MacCollEwan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...
. After joining his troupe, Theatre of Action, Littlewood and Miller were soon married. After a brief move to London, they returned to Manchester and set up the Theatre Union in 1936.
Career
In 1941, Littlewood was banned from broadcasting on the BBC. The ban was lifted two years later when MI5 said she had broken off her association with the Communist Party. She was under surveillance by MI5 from 1939 until the 1950s.
In 1945, after the end of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Littlewood, her husband, and other Theatre Union members formed
Theatre WorkshopTheatre Workshop is a theatre group noted for their director, Joan Littlewood. Many actors of the 1950s and 1960s received their training and first exposure with the company...
, touring for the next 8 years. Shortly afterwards, when Gerry Raffles joined the troupe, MacColl and Littlewood divorced, though they still worked together for many years and Littlewood was godmother to MacColl's two children. Littlewood and Raffles were life partners until his death in 1975.
In 1953, after an attempt to establish a permanent base in
GlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Theatre Workshop took up residence at the
Theatre RoyalThe Theatre Royal Stratford East is a theatre in Stratford in the London Borough of Newham. Since 1953, it has been the home of the Theatre Workshop company.-History:...
in Stratford, east London, where it gained international fame, performing international plays across
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and in the
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. One of Littlewood's most famous productions was the British première of
Bertolt BrechtBertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
's
Mother Courage and Her ChildrenMother Courage and Her Children is a play written in 1939 by the German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht with significant contributions from Margarete Steffin...
(1955), which she directed and also starred in the lead role. Her production of
Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'BeFings Ain't Wot They Used T'be is a play with music, rather than a musical. The play, by Frank Norman, himself a Cockney, has music and lyrics by Lionel Bart, who also grew up in London's East End.-Production background:...
, a musical about the London underworld, became a hit and ran from 1959 to 1962, transferring to the West End.
The works for which she is now best remembered are probably
Shelagh DelaneyShelagh Delaney, FRSL was an English dramatist and screenwriter, best-known for her debut work, A Taste of Honey ....
's
A Taste of HoneyA Taste of Honey is the first play by the British dramatist Shelagh Delaney, written when she was 18. It was initially intended as a novel, but she turned it into a play because she hoped to revitalize British theatre and to address social issues that she felt were not being presented...
(1958), which gained great critical acclaim, and the satirical musical
Oh, What a Lovely War!Oh, What a Lovely War! is an epic musical originated by Charles Chilton as a radio play, The Long Long Trail in December 1961, and transferred to stage by Gerry Raffles in partnership with Joan Littlewood and her Theatre Workshop in 1963...
(1963), her stage adaptation of a work for radio by
Charles ChiltonCharles Chilton MBE is a BBC radio presenter, a writer and a producer. Born in Bloomsbury in London, England, he never knew his father - who was killed during World War I - and when he was six his mother died as a result of having a botched abortion, so he was raised by his grandmother. He was...
. Both were subsequently made into films. Theatre Workshop also championed the work of Irish playwright
Brendan BehanBrendan Francis Behan was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both Irish and English. He was also an Irish republican and a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army.-Early life:...
, and Littlewood is often rumoured to have a significant role in his work.
After Raffles's death in 1975, Littlewood left Theatre Workshop and stopped directing. After a time of drifting she settled in
FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and became the companion of Baron
Philippe de RothschildBaron Philippe de Rothschild was a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty who became a Grand Prix race-car driver, a screenwriter and playwright, a theatrical producer, a film producer, a poet, and one of the most successful wine growers in the world.-Early life:Born in Paris, Georges Philippe...
, the vintner and poet, and wrote his memoirs,
Milady Vine. In the mid-1980s, she commenced work on her 1994 autobiography,
Joan's Book.
Film of Joan Littlewood rehearsing young actors is available on the DVD of
Bronco BullfrogBronco Bullfrog is a 1969 British black-and-white film directed by Barney Platts-Mills and stars Del Walker and Anne Gooding. It is set in London's East End and features the suedehead subculture...
.
Personal life
Littlewood died, in 2002, of natural causes at the age of 87 in the London flat of Peter Rankin, her UK base for the previous 23 years.
Further reading
- Goorney, Howard, and Ewan MacColl (1990). Agit-Prop to Theatre Workshop: Political Playscripts, 1930-50. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719022118
- Littlewood, Joan (2003). Joan's Book: The Autobiography of Joan Littlewood. London: Methuen. ISBN 0413773183
- MacColl, Ewan (1990). Journeyman: An Autobiography. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 0283060360
External links