AustLit

'For the first time, this unique collection of essays brings the stories of New Theatre branches together from around the country, filling a vital space in Australian cultural history. Radical left-wing theatre history tales, told by theatre practitioners, historians, academics and political ratbags, reveal a rich vein of Australia's hidden cultural heritage.

'The New Theatre, one of the country's oldest continuously performing theatres, began life inspired by British and American early radical theatre groups. Growing as a series of branches, initially as Workers' Art Clubs in Sydney and Melbourne, they soon adopted the New Theatre League name. Other branches followed, in Brisbane, Perth, Newcastle and Adelaide, with some branches disbanding and then reforming over the decades. The Sydney branch remains active, with an unbroken record of performances from 1932 to today.

'For much of the twentieth century, the branches of Australia's New Theatre created theatre for the people by the people, reclaiming and creating stories of creativity, protest and ingenuity. The theatre's strong tradition of performing socially and politically relevant work attracted a mainly working-class following dedicated to subverting the politics and cultural norms of the day, pushing back hard against exploitation of the working class, sexism, racism, and war. All together they produced over 400 plays, written by Australian and overseas dramatists seeking not only to develop cultural activism locally but also to embody the broader aims and aspirations of an international working-class theatre movement.

'Closely aligned with the Communist Party and the unions, New Theatre had social justice at the heart of everything they did. They advocated for freedom and democracy, aiming to activate their audiences politically, and create authentic, non-commercial Australian drama about real lives and situations their audience could identify with. They wanted to tell the stories nobody else was telling, about the real lives of working-class people - the suffering, the drudgery, the ill-treatment, and danger that were facts of life for their audience.

'The New Theatre was unique in its range of performance sites. Productions were performed in small theatres, on the streets, from the back of a truck, in workplaces, down a mine for striking miners and next to dole queues; whether it was on a street corner in working-class Fitzroy in Melbourne, on the banks of the muddy Brisbane River, or on the Port Kembla wharves, the New Theatre was there. Requests for performances came from factories, rural and regional localities, and country towns. Their presentations on street corners, union and trade halls, large factories and workplaces such as railway yards and wharves were remembered long after the applause died away.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'One of the many Australians who campaigned against participation in the Vietnam War was Freda Brown (1919–2009). Among the anti-war groups she worked within, three employed a maternalist approach to many of their campaigns. Mobilising against the prevailing concept of a woman’s role to keep the home fires burning and support the troops, Brown travelled to North Vietnam at the height of the conflict. One remarkable outcome of her activism was the funding of the Hanoi Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital. This article explores Brown’s work in these organisations, and examines her work in transnational maternalism.'  (Publication abstract)

'Freda Brown was a political activist in the women’s, peace, and anti-apartheid movements, both in Australia and overseas. A passionate believer in equality, she occupied her busy life with action and organisation. While some of her greatest achievements can be seen in her work in helping to establish and lead pioneering women’s organisations, she travelled widely also in the service of political, peace and anti-racism causes. She was a widely respected activist and led an absorbing and very busy life with her political work both in Australia and overseas. She also worked as a journalist, political party organiser and theatre director. This biography is a long-overdue acknowledgement of the pioneering role Freda played at a time when second-generation feminism was decades away. At a time when women were not supposed to want anything more than being a wife and mother, Freda combined career and family successfully for decades, believed passionately in equality and peace, and fought for the rights of people all over the world. She was a leading member of the CPA long after many had left it, and remained a socialist all her life, preferring to hold her personal values rather than be fashionable. Behind Freda’s story lie much bigger cultural, social and political ones: the flowering of alternative political ideas, the development of second-wave feminism, the sexual revolution and the changing nature of reproductive rights, and the blossoming of decolonisation and globalisation. Her legacy underlines the lives of many of us in the 21st century.' (Publication Summary)

'A woman whose story and achievements are substantially lost to history, Freda Brown (1919-2009) was a political activist in the women's, peace, and anti-apartheid movements, both in Australia and overseas. After beginning her career in Australian left-wing and women's organisations, Freda crossed the globe for twenty-five years, working as the leader of a worldwide organisation of two hundred million members. While some of her greatest achievements can be seen in her work in helping to establish and lead pioneering women's organisations, she travelled widely also in the service of political, peace and anti-racism causes. She placed a great deal of importance on her work in intersecting networks of activists across Australia and the world. Together with casting Freda Brown's story from her own words, recollections of colleagues, and archival research, this article also investigates the importance of networking for Freda. It explores questions around the biographer's task in piecing together a life story, and issues of memory and biography.'  (Publication abstract)