Telling the Story of the Peasants’ Revolt and Today’s ‘New Radical Theatre’

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

John Cresswell

Published:

2025

The English Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was a momentous rising of the land-workers of England in the southern counties and beyond, that shook the social order and came close to toppling the monarchy. The issues were taxation to pay for war, the hypocrisy of the church and the terrible exploitation upon which the rich relied in the late fourteenth century. Ever since the Rising the story has been told either in cautionary warning by representatives of the establishment or as inspiration for those who struggle for a fairer, safer and more just society. The Introduction of When Katherine Brewed traces the history of it’s telling down the ages, covering the chronicles immediately following that extraordinary summer, the story as it was told in the eras of the English Civil war and the French Revolution, the embracing of the memory of the Revolt by Chartist movement, the socialist histories of the Twentieth Century and the significance of the story today. The Introduction also surveys the journey of radical and Left theatre since the 1930s, its proliferation in the 1960s, 1970s, and 19080s, through to the politically difficult years of the 1990s and 2000s. Despite the challenges it has faced radical and Left theatre survives, and continues to contribute to movements for social change and liberation and to the working class and trade union movement.

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