Book Published about Red Ladder Theatre practice

[Red Ladder]

A new book that looks at Red Ladder Theatre Company’s extraordinary 40 year history has just been published by Swati Pal, an academic from Delhi University

Entitled “Look Back At Anger: Agit Prop Theatre in Britain” the book takes an in-depth look at Red Ladder’s agit prop beginnings, its progress through the 70s, 80s and 90s, and its current status as one of the country’s most enduring theatre companies.

2008 marked 40 years of Red Ladder Theatre Company. In 1968, a large number of agit prop theatre companies mushroomed in Britain, the Agit Prop Street Players who later renamed themselves as Red Ladder, was one among many. With time other theatre companies surrendered to and became part of theatre history. Not so Red Ladder. It has survived and it is now time for a reassessment. Is agit prop theatre dead or alive? How does such theatrical practice contribute to society/community? These are only some of the questions the book explores. It looks back at all the anger that led to the emergence of Red Ladder and how it surged ahead as a leading theatre company in the multicultural Britain of today. The book’s distinctiveness lies in the textual analysis of the plays and the investigative nature of the research undertaken. To anyone interested in theatre history, past and presently in the making, to fellow academics, students, artists, practitioners, youth workers, young people, community activists and the general public, this book will be insightful.

“Look Back At Anger: Agit Prop Theatre in Britain – Red Ladder Theatre Company from the 60s – 90s” by Swati Pal is published by VDM and is available from http://www.amazon.co.uk/Look-Back-At-Anger-Theatre/

For further media information please contact Stefanie Gascoigne

[e-mail] / 0113 245 5311