John Mcgrath - Plays For England

The late John McGrath made his name as a playwright and television writer and director, founding the 7:84 Theatre Companies, as well as the hit TV series Z-Cars. He wrote over 50 plays for theatre and numerous feature film screenplays, and ran his own film production company, Freeway Films. He was Visiting Fellow in Theatre at Cambridge University, and Visiting Professor in Media Studies at Royal Holloway College.Nadine Holdsworth is Lecturer in Theatre Studies at Warwick University. She is the editor of John McGrath's Naked Thoughts that Roam About: Reflections on Theatre (Nick Hern Books, 2002). Her research specialises in post-war British drama, cultural policy, popular performance, and the intersections of these with class, gender, and race. She has been at Warwick since January 2000. She studied Drama (BA Hons) at the University of Loughborough between 1987 and 1990. Her doctorate on '7:84 England: Performance and Ideological Transaction', also completed at Loughborough, was awarded in 1995.

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Foreword by Michael BillingtonIntroductionJohn McGrath's early career: 1958-70 The Liverpool Everyman: 1971-72 7:84 Theatre Company: 1971-73 7:84 England Theatre Company: 1973-75 7:84 England Theatre Company in decline: 1976-79 Responding to Thatcherism: 1980-85 Watching for Dolphins in the 1990sNotes Bibliography and Further ReadingThe Plays They've Got Out (1961) Unruly Elements/Plugged In (1971) Angel of the MorningPlugged in to History They're Knocking Down the Pie Shop Trees in the Wind (1971) Fish in the Sea (1975) Lay Off (1975) Rejoice! (1982) Watching for Dolphins (1992)

No one since Joan Littlewood did more to advance the cause of popular theatre in Britain than John McGrath . . . He believed strongly that the function of art was to reach as many people as possible, to heighten individual awareness and to help change society for the better.Handsomely produced and illustrated, both volumes are an eloquent monument to one of British twentieth-century theatre’s most important cultural activists. NB: ‘both volumes’ refers to both ‘Freedom’s Pioneer’ and ‘Plays for England’