Copyright

Paul Farmer

Published On

2023-09-27

Page Range

pp. 37–60

Language

  • English

Print Length

24 pages

3. One & All!

  • Paul Farmer (author)
Chapter of: After the Miners’ Strike: A39 and Cornish Political Theatre versus Thatcher’s Britain: Volume 1(pp. 37–60)
The conditions of Thatcher’s 1980s exposes those on the Left to government attack. The miners, organised in the National Union of Mineworkers with Arthur Scargill as President, are perceived by Thatcher’s cabal as a primary enemy to be destroyed. The strike provoked by the government exposes divisions and hypocrisy in the UK Labour Movement.
Nevertheless, the miners’ struggle constitutes a defence of communities and ways of life and there is huge support for them among socialists and large sections of the general public. To participate in this support is what our work is for. The aim is ‘efficacy’, an effect on the world beyond the theatre.
Now we have to find our audience, amongst whom we could assume no prior knowledge of the social event of theatre. Our work will be for Cornish communities and will also be a working-class voice. Hard rock metal mining is a part of Cornwall—a fundamental aspect of how the Cornish see themselves. We will create a show to support the Miners’ Strike through the story of Cornish mining, in a form we call ‘cabaret documentary’.
A39 will be a permanent research process. Part of the experiment is to find what we are as performers. We write and start rehearsing One & All! in the Crypt Unemployed and Community Centre in early 1985.

Contributors

Paul Farmer

(author)
Associate Lecturer at Falmouth University
http://www.farmerart.co.uk/

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’.