A New Group

Wellington has for some time been well endowed with 'good' bourgeois theatre. Red Mole and other groups have made some headway recently in broadening the scope, but nearly always within an avant garde or fringe definition. A new theatre group is currently being formed with quite different aims. The intention is to present three plays tracing the development of the Trade Union movement in this country, from 1840 to 1977.

The first play covers the period up till 1913. It begins with the fight for an eight hour day in the 1840's moves to the formation of unions in the 1880 s and the Arbitration Court in 1894. The unsuccessful 1912 Waihi strike is closely investigated.

On that notorious occasion, William Massey used police and scabs to manipulate the Arbitration Court and directly attack the workers' movement. One unionist was killed and eighteen hundred were evicted from their homes. The next year saw the General Strike and the formation of the United Federation of Labour. "We must strangle the baby in its cot," proclaimed Massey, and on that note the play ends.

The second-play covers events up till the fall of the Labour Government in 1949, and the third moves from the 1951 Waterfront Strike to the present day.

The group will be performing in November, in various places around Wellington, at Porirua, Wainuiomata, and possibly in the Wairarapa. Actors are still needed. If you would like to be involved in avowedly political theatre, ring Harold (843-346) or John (856-716).

"The first problem is, literature and art for whom?"—Mao Tse tung.