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EWAN MACCOLL (1915 - 1989) |
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Nationality: British Email: n/a Website: n/a |
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Literary Agent: n/a |
Ewan MacColl (25 January 1915 22 October 1989). For nearly 60 years, Ewan MacColl, an activist and left-wing socialist, expressed his views as a playwright, social activist, songwriter and performer. During the course of his lifetime he composed a body of work that ranks among the best in the British folk genre. Among the songs he wrote that others recorded and made famous are "Dirty Old Town" (Rod Stewart, the Pogues), "Freeborn Man" (The Pogues), and his Grammy Award-winning song "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," a hit single for Roberta Flack in 1971, and which he wrote for his longtime collaborator and life partner, Peggy Seeger. Born Jimmie Miller in 1915, MacColl changed his name in 1949. His parents were from Scotland and relocated to Salford, Lancashire, England, where MacColl was born. Some sources incorrectly state that MacColl was born in Scotland, which derives from a mythology MacColl devised for himself as a young man. He set the record straight for a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) documentary shortly before his death. His parents were laborers and socialists, and were well-versed in Scottish, Irish, and English folk songs. His father spoke Scots English and his mother spoke Gaelic. In his autobiography, Journeyman, MacColl remembered his youth: "The front room is where everything happens. We eat there and entertain friends. It is the centre of our social life. The table, which is its main item of furniture, has many uses. We take our meals on it. I draw and write and play games on it after the evening meal has been cleared away. My father sits at it when he writes his notes for the union branch or when the branch holds its meetings at our house. My mother uses it for doing her ironing on and for baking." MacColl quit school when he was 14 years old and worked briefly at a number of jobs, including factory worker, builder, mechanic, and street entertainer. During this period he wrote and edited for factory newspapers, and for a short time he wrote and performed advertising jingles for small English businesses. Because the early 1930s were a period of economic depression in many countries, including England, permanent jobs were difficult to find and unemployment was rampant. MacColl's leftist political leanings prompted him to join the hunger marches and protests of the unemployed. In 1934 MacColl met actress Joan Littlewood, who had recently left the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. The young couple married and established an experimental theater in Manchester called the Theatre of Action. The following year MacColl and Littlewood moved to London to form a drama school for workers. In 1936 they founded the Theatre Union, which they called the "theatre of the people." Between 1936 and 1939 the Theatre Union produced plays throughout the industrialized northern areas of England, including works such as Lope de Vega's Fuente Ovejuna, MacColl's adaptation of the novel The Good Soldier Schweik, and MacColl's play The Last Edition, which described many of the events leading up to World War II. Although the play was successful, it was also highly controversial in a country preparing to enter war against Germany. As a result, MacColl and Littlewood were arrested for disturbing the peace. They received a heavy fine and a parole that forbade them from participating in the theater for two years, and England's declaration of war on Germany broke up the Theatre Union. Following the war MacColl, Littlewood, and several members of the Theatre Union established the Theatre Workshop. During this phase of his career MacColl earned a reputation as a playwright of note, earning the respect of fellow socialist playwright George Bernard Shaw, who wrote: "Apart from myself, MacColl is the only man of genius writing for the theatre in England today." By 1952 several of his plays had been translated into many different languages. His marriage to Littlewood, however, had dissolved, and MacColl married dancer Jean Newlove in 1950. He turned his focus from the theater to music.
Plays by Ewan MacColl
End Part One, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | 11 Nov 1999 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #23104 | |||
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Genre: | piece | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Based on Uranium 235 | |||||
Synopsis: |
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Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Festival of Fools | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | 1965, 1970 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #107037 | |||
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Genre: | TS, 2 versions | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | National Library of Scotland ref: 7:84 (Scotland) Theatre Company - Acc.10893/213 | |||||
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Good Soldier Schweik, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | 09 Nov 1954 | |||||
Company: | Theatre Workshop | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #21650 | |||
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Genre: | Adaptation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 10 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | novel by Jaroslay Hasek | |||||
Synopsis: |
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Further Reference: | Wearing 54.271; Wearing 55.214 | |||||
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Jimmie Miller | ||
| 1st Produced: | Czechoslovakia | Autumn 1948 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #139933 | |||
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Genre: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Johnnie Noble is a poem of the unnamed people on the north-east English coast. The poem grows on a black horizon and in the white light of the projectors or in the grim twilight, like one of those films which make us sometimes honour English production. It is so vivid, so real - we must learn from them. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Johnny Noble | ||
| 1st Produced: | Theatre Royal - Stratford East, Gerry Raffles Square, Stratford, London, E15 1BN >>> | 08 Jun 1954 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0413776754 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #82927 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 8 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | 1 child | |||||
Notes: | For information about performance rights please email rights@methuen.co.uk | |||||
| The history of the Great Depression and the Second World War is re-imagined in the light of the common (but usually hidden) experience of an unemployed worker, in this case a fisherman from Hull | |||||
Further Reference: | Wearing 54.142; National Library of Scotland ref: 7:84 (Scotland) Theatre Company - Acc.10893/96-7 | |||||
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Landscape With Chimneys | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | 1949 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #96222 | |||
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Genre: | n/a | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Lysistrata | ||
| 1st Produced: | Theatre Royal - Stratford East, Gerry Raffles Square, Stratford, London, E15 1BN >>> | 11 May 1953 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #139915 | |||
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Genre: | 3 act adaptation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 8 | Female | 6 | ||
Parts other: | doublin, extras | |||||
Notes: | Original Playwright - Aristophanes (1st perormed 411 BC) | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | Wearing 53.87 | |||||
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Operation Olive Branch | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0413776754 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #139911 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | n/a | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | For information about performance rights please email rights@methuen.co.uk | |||||
| MacColls wickedly funny adaptation of the Lysistrata of Aristophanes deals with fundamental issues of peace and war in a way not confined to the specifics of its inspiration... and Winston Churchills famous speech announcing the creation of the Iron Curtain. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Other Animals, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | Theatre Royal - Stratford East, Gerry Raffles Square, Stratford, London, E15 1BN >>> | 15 Feb 1955 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0413776754 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #107039 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | 2 part play | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | lots of extras | |||||
Notes: | For information about performance rights please email rights@methuen.co.uk | |||||
| Focuses more specifically on a single person, a political prisoner asked to renounce his political ideals, in a series of scenes which are both harrowing and poetic, and as relevant today, in the post-Mandela era, as they were in the days of Hitlers concentration camps and Stalins gulag. | |||||
Further Reference: | Wearing 55.28; National Library of Scotland ref: 7:84 Theatre Company Scotland - Acc.12911/246 | |||||
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Paradise Street | ||
| 1st Produced: | Theatre Royal - Stratford East, Gerry Raffles Square, Stratford, London, E15 1BN >>> | 02 Mar 1953 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #139914 | |||
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Genre: | 10 scenes | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 8 | Female | 6 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | by Ewan MacColl with additional dialogue by George Stiles | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | Wearing 53.32 | |||||
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Prince And The Pauper, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | Theatre Royal - Stratford East, Gerry Raffles Square, Stratford, London, E15 1BN >>> | 27 Dec 1954 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #139917 | |||
To Buy This Play: | ||||||
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Genre: | 3 act adaptation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | large cast | |||||
Notes: | adapted by Ewan MacColl and Joan Littlewood | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | Wearing 54.321 | |||||
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Shore Saints And Sea devils | ||
| 1st Produced: | 09 Nov 1983 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #139912 | |||
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Genre: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 11 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Shore Saints and Sea Devils is set in the bar of a dockland lodging house in 1905, when the tall ship's majesty was being usurped by upstart steamers. Upstairs. a washed up captain holds a wake for his redundant role with whisky and women. Below, his former crew plot their revenge on the master who drove them across the Atlantic in record time. | |||||
Further Reference: | ||||||
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Travellers, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | Theatre Royal - Stratford East, Gerry Raffles Square, Stratford, London, E15 1BN >>> | 24 Nov 1953 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #139916 | |||
To Buy This Play: | ||||||
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Genre: | 2 act play | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 6 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | Wearing 53.311 | |||||
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Uranium 235 | ||
| 1st Produced: | Park, Hanwell | 12 Nov 1946 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #139913 | |||
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Genre: | epic play 13 episodes | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | large cast | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | Wearing 52.118 | |||||
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