Items

• The Dockers' Tanner
  This theatre programme advertises 'The Dockers’ Tanner', a play by Leslie Martin staged at London’s Unity Theatre in the mid-1950s. Produced by Joe McColum with décor by Lucien Amaral, the play dramatises the 1889 London Dock Strike, when workers united to demand the “dockers’ tanner” (a minimum wage of sixpence an hour). Unity Theatre, known for its left-wing productions, used drama to highlight labour struggles and working-class history. At just six pages, the programme provides cast lists and production details, while also embodying the theatre’s broader mission - to make radical politics accessible through performance, solidarity, and cultural engagement.
• The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
  This programme, issued by the Unity Theatre around 1949, announces a stage adaptation of Robert Tressell’s landmark novel 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists' by Frank Rhodes. The novel, first published in 1914, vividly depicts the struggles of working-class painters and decorators, exposing exploitation and inequality in Edwardian England. By staging it, Unity Theatre brought Tressell’s socialist message to contemporary audiences in post-war Britain. The modest three-page programme not only records cast and production details but also reflects the theatre’s enduring mission to connect political conviction with performance and to champion working-class voices on the London stage.