Copyright

Paul Farmer

Published On

2023-09-27

Page Range

pp. 27–36

Language

  • English

Print Length

10 pages

2. Into A39

  • Paul Farmer (author)
After parting with Miracle Theatre comes a period reviewing the significance of that experience in the light of British art, class and culture, and the need to express political commitment and class identity in relation to the developing history of the Miners’ Strike. What is contemporary theatre? How is it so literally exclusive, its institutions and assumptions reserved so determinedly to the middle classes? What is the significance of British state obsession with William Shakespeare? The discovery of the Plen an Gwari and Ordinalia traditions reveal a history of Cornish popular engagement with theatre, and theatre’s possibilities as a medium that can defy dominant power structures and interests are investigated. Two ex-members of Miracle form an alliance with two members of Falmouth-based unemployed workers’ theatre group Roll Up, and A39 Theatre Group is formed. The writings of John McGrath in relation to 7:84 Theatre Company suggest forms for a practice that can disseminate socialist ideas and working-class perspectives to support the Strike.

Contributors

Paul Farmer

(author)
Associate Lecturer at Falmouth University

Paul Farmer first worked in Cornish arts as an actor/musician/bus driver with Miracle Theatre, then co-founded A39 Theatre Group, later becoming artistic director. As a freelance playwright he wrote a number of plays for Kneehigh Theatre Company and for Cornish community events and celebrations. During the mid-late 1990s Farmer was one of those who established the Cornish film industry, as a writer, director and producer. An increasingly experimental film practice would lead to a number of projects exploring digital image work in a literary context. He was a founder member and company manager of the live literature collective Scavel An Gow, then one of the three artists who represented Cornwall in the European Regions of Culture initiative, leading into work in a fine art context in performance, moving image and installation. He holds an Honours degree in Theatre from Dartington College of Arts and a Masters in Fine Art: contemporary practice from University College Falmouth. From 2014 to 2022 he was a lecturer in film and theatre at Falmouth University. In 2000 he was made a Bard of Gorsedh Kernow ‘for services to Cornish arts’.