Company name: Belt and Braces Roadshow Theatre Company & Band
Established: 1973
Founders: Jeni Barnett, Eugene Geasley, Gavin Richards and Marcel Steiner
Reason: To produce politically aware entertainment from a working class viewpoint. The name of the company was chosen by Eugene Geasley, Irish actor and signwriter, who remembered his father actually wearing belt and braces to go to work. The company was set up by four ex-members of Ken Campbell’s Roadshow after that group was disbanded. The first show was scrabbled together at the Leith Festival in Edinburgh and entitled Ramsey MacDonald The Last Ten Days. It was booked for one night at a dockside pub. After the first performance, the pub landlord cancelled the strippers who normally played and the show ran to packed houses for the rest of the week.
Current status: Disbanded 1984. ‘Too much success!’. The rise of Thatcher and the decline of the organised working class movement of the time.
Area of work: Political
Policy: Roadshow company that aimed to produce articulate, socialist entertainment from a working class viewpoint
Structure: Co-operative control, Gavin Richards later elected as Artistic Director.
Based: London
Funding: Arts Council of Great Britain grant and unpaid promoters throughout the country. Tours abroad, mainly Sweden, Denmark and Holland. Later commercial success.
Performance venues: Toured anywhere in the country. Preferred venues included places where the working class gathered: Trade Union meetings, Working Men’s Clubs, Arts Centres, colleges, boats, open spaces, pubs, schools, ‘anyone who’d have us’.
Audiences: Yes – often huge!
For more images see Gavin Richards’ web page.
Company work and Process:
‘Each project was arrived at by a different route’ (Gavin Richards)
Personal appraisals:
See Eileen Pollock’s quote on working on Death of An Anarchist
Reviews:
Weight
‘The writing and the acting are tough and passionate; a question which should be central to socialist drama – is posed and yet more wonderful, explored.’ (Robert Cushman, The Observer)
‘In these days of theatrical gloom, Weight shines out like an undipped headlight. Anyone who’d like to be convinced again that theatre is alive and well, vigorous, funny and moving, should get down at once to see this new play by Belt & Braces.’ (Naseem Khan, Evening Standard)
‘Weight proves that Belt & Braces are already worth every penny of their increased Arts Council grant. The play is vividly written and splendidly argued. The performances exert a magnetic pull.’ (Dusty Hughes, Time Out)
Accidental Death of an Anarchist
West End Reviews:
‘This is no solemn documentary; it is a grotesque farce in the time honoured style of political caricature.’ (Felix Barker, Evening News)
‘A breakneck and biting satirical farce that fulfils the old gag, bringing Marxism to the Marx Brothers. The combination of belly-laugh comedy and political anger is amazingly successful. It’s a tribute to the gifted troupe, especially adapter-director-star Gavin Richards, whose prestidigitating performance as the mad impersonator is a dazzling combination of Groucho, Peter Sellers and Leon Trotsky.’ (Newsweek)
‘…..[Accidental Death of an Anarchist] celebrated its 250th performance at Wyndhams Theatre on Friday October 31st. It is now the longest running alternative theatre production ever, and continues to generate a whole new West End audience. Its success has opened the West End to a whole new range of productions from the fringe and from small theatres. Many consider that this achievement has changed the face of London theatre permanently.’ (This Is London magazine, November 1980)
The TV version:
‘It was as refreshing to find this material hurled out of the box as it was to find a cast wholly new to television, led of course by Gavin Richards whose talents are marvellously suited to the medium. Very few people can act and also deliver the material of a stand- up comic with the camera in close-up. Richards can. Moreover this production was the first completely successful example I can remember (there have been umpteen attempts) of the Brechtian technique of showing the studio complete with technicians and barracking audience in order to avoid the viewer’s suspension of disbelief. It worked brilliantly well: the jokes were funny but you were never allowed to forget the true purpose of the piece for long.’ (Chris Dunkley, Financial Times, September 1983)
Production table:
[table id=39 /]
Interviewee reference: Gavin Richards, Eileen Pollock and Gillian Hanna
Bibliography:
England Expects by Gavin Richards (Journeyman Press 1977)
Acknowledgements: Many thanks to Gavin Richards for providing the copy for this page, constructed by Jessica Higgs, assisted by Kim Dexter. November 2013
The creation of this page was supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund.