| Description | 'Sweat Shop' was intended to 'lift the lid' on the early 1990s economic recovery in Britain. It exposed the links between back-street sweatshop employers and the big brand name manufacturers. The production was also significant as the show that restored Banner Theatre as a funded company.
'Sweat Shop' was based on over 70 interviews with hat makers in Luton, homeworkers in Sandwell, shoemakers in Indonesia and jean machinists in San Antonio, Texas. In story and song, 'Sweat Shop' looked at 250 years of struggle against low wages and inhuman working conditions across the world. Banner Theatre employed techniques to assemble 'Sweat Shop' that were similar to its earliest modes of theatrical composition. Aidan Jolly drew on the collage techniques of John Heartefield from the 1920s as well as contemporary artists such as Peter Kennard and John Berger.
'Sweat Shop' utilised a story telling mode developed in workshops with Marion Oughton, a professional storyteller with a long association with Banner Theatre. The production was divided into units, each dealing with a specific phase in the development of British or globalised capitalism. Each unit had specific narrative and the play used a narrative device adopted from MacColl's 'Festival of Fools' from the 1960s, performers shared a playful linguistic mode.
The units of 'Sweat Shop' included:
'Mercantile Capital: the Bengal Story'
'Industrial Revolution: Ten Handed Machines'
Beta SP video cassette tapes produced for the Commonwealth TUC in 1993 - 1994 were supplied to Banner for use in a production [probably 'Sweat Shop' [see MS 1611/F/3/1].
Banner Theatre received a grant of £2,000 from the Revenue Grants Applications Panel of Bedfordshire County Council. This was used as a contribution towards the pre-production research of 'Sweatshop'.
Funding was also received for the production of a CD-ROM computer educational package for the trade union movement and the educational sector. Based on research undertaken for 'Sweat Shop', it considered issues of racism and worker exploitation, in Britain and throughout the world. [See MS 1611/A/3/10]. |
| AdminHistory | Banner Theatre and Jubilee Arts Company collaborated in a multi-media challenge to increasing racism within Britain. This was a phased approach, with phase 1 emerging as 'Sweat Shop' and phase 2 developing into 'Redemption Song'. In both cases, the impact of economic constraints and exploitation of workers in Britain and around the world was considered. There was a recognition of the need to counter negative pressures on white, working class communities to embrace raciism. Both productions sought to demonstrate the common struggle of workers against exploitation, whether in different economic sectors of Britain or in other parts of the world. In conjunction with the two Banner performances, Jubilee Arts supported related community arts projects such as photographic exhibitions. |