Copyright

Paul Farmer

Published On

2023-09-27

Page Range

pp. 91–94

Language

  • English

Print Length

4 pages

7. A39 and the Tin Crisis

  • Paul Farmer (author)
Chapter of: After the Miners’ Strike: A39 and Cornish Political Theatre versus Thatcher’s Britain: Volume 1(pp. 91–94)
On 24 October 1985, the tin market collapses after the buffer stock manager of the International Tin Council runs out of money and can no longer buy tin on the London Metal Exchange to maintain the high price that keeps Cornish mines viable. This event threatens the absolute end of thousands of years of Cornish mining, the industry that provides Cornwall with its image of itself.
We decide to take One & All! back on the road with a new ending in the old Blue Blouse theatre form of the Living Newspaper. We also present this new crisis section of the show live on Radio Cornwall to explain what is happening.
Thatcher’s government eventually agrees to support South Crofty with loans for capital improvement that allow it to stagger on for a while. The other mines close. In the spring, almost exactly a year after its first performance, we present One & All! at the miners’ social club at Geevor in Pendeen. This is probably the fulfilment of all A39 had set out to achieve by building a voice into events to represent and speak with the Cornish working class. But it doesn’t feel like success. Just a few days later, productive mining at Geevor will cease.

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’.