Sheffield’s tenants’ theatres in the 1980s: theatre, community and activism

This essay offers an account of the tenants’ activist theatres which developed in Sheffield, UK, in the 1980s, and the role I and collaborator John Goodchild played in their development. A response by working-class communities to the devastating effects of globalisation, rapid de-industrialisation, and mass unemployment, the theatres were a contribution to local and national campaigns. The essay sets out the political and social context in which the theatres arose, beginning with the election of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of a Conservative Government in 1979. The key themes of what came to be known as Thatcherism, defined by a focus on free market economics, de-regulation, and attacks on trade unions and local government powers, are then detailed. These attacks gave rise to national and local resistance in the forms of strikes and campaigns, which provided the context for the emergence of Manor Campaign Theatre, the first of the tenants’ groups. The main body of the essay offers a narrative of the tenants’ theatres, their processes and organisation, and their role within campaigns around housing, welfare, credit unions, and water poverty. The conclusion connects these struggles with current injustices, sourced in the still-unfolding impacts of Thatcherism.