The rebels negotiate with King Richard II
Go to the website for full details of the project.
Please note that the working title of When Eve Span has now been replaced by the performance title of And Katherine Brewed.
"This is a terrific initiative to remind people that in this country there is a history of centuries of class struggle, often based upon a belief in equality and freedom." John McDonnell, MP Hayes and Harlington
"The story of the Peasants’ Revolt has resonated through generations. It would be fantastic to see this important chapter of England’s radical history brought to life on stage." Dan Carden, MP Liverpool, Walton
“The revolt of the common people against their feudal overlords has a very contemporary feel in 2023. The act of bringing the people’s history to the people through live theatre is a worthy initiative that should be supported by trade unionists and everyone who believes in a better future. Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” Alex Gordon, President, National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers (RMT)
"Very best of luck with this project - you may know that I am a huge fan of radical history and among other things have written a song 'Tyler Smiles' about the second anti poll tax Peasants' Revolt of 1990 looking back to 1381 and dedicated to the spirit of Wat Tyler. This donation is from our community festival, Glastonwick - it is exactly the kind of thing we are proud to support." John Baine (Attila the Stockbroker)
Supporters
Publicity and promotion
- Trades Union Congress (TUC)
- NW Region TUC
- SE Region TUC
- NW Region UCU
- Musicians' Union
- CWU Greater Mersey and SW Lancashire
Funding
- UNISON NW Region
- UNISON Salford Care Organisation
- UNISON Sefton
- UNISON Environment Agency NW
- UNISON Burnley
- Liverpool Unite (construction)
- NEU Tower Hamlets
- Chelmsford TUC
- Coventry TUC
- Southend TUC
- East Ayrshire TUC
- Lancaster and Morecambe TUC
- Lancashire Association of Trades Union Councils
- Harlow TUC
- Liverpool TUC
- Inverness TUC
- Norwich TUC
- Colchester TUC
- Leicester TUC
- Derby TUC
- Greenwich and Bexley TUC
- Leeds TUC
- Camden TUC
How did the project begin?
When Eve Span is an ongoing seven-year collaboration between Mark O’Brien and John Cresswell. Way back in 2004 Mark published a small book on the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381: When Adam Delved and Eve Span. A History of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. John meanwhile had been establishing himself as an actor and playwright. After a chance catch-up chat at the bar of the Marxism 2016 event in London, Mark and John hatched the idea of writing and producing a play based upon this amazing story from English history.
Why is this story important today?
During June-July 1381 the peasants of England rose up against their feudal lords and came within a cat’s whisker of overthrowing the monarchy!
It was an amazing episode in English history. It happened a long time ago; over six and a half centuries ago, in fact. The chronicles of the time that tell the story, describe a late feudal society that was very different from our own.
And yet the story of the rising serves also as a hugely powerful metaphor for the struggles of the oppressed and the exploited in every generation since. The Levellers of the English Civil War 1642-1651 celebrated the rising. Thomas Paine refers to the revolt in his 1791 revolutionary pamphlet The Rights of Man. In the twentieth century the historians of the British Communist Party, Rodney Hilton and Hyman Fagan, wrote about it in their The English Rising of 1381 (1950).
Certainly, the great themes of the Revolt are relevant today. Contagion created its backdrop with the Great Plague of the middle of the 14th Century. War dominated English life in the years leading up to it. Taxation antagonised the population, as did the venality of the church and the hypocrisy, double standards and cynicism of the rich. But more than the immediate demands of the revolt, the inspiration of a communist ideal raised the sights of the rebels to imagine a world that could be radically different from the one in which they lived.
The story of the rising is more resonant now than ever before. In this age of pandemic, war, inequality and oppression, we can relate to the sense of social injustice and anger felt by the rebels of 1381. Today, their voices of protest, and their demands for justice and radical social change, still ring down through the centuries.
When Eve Span will tell and perform the story of the revolt for the modern audiences of today’s capitalist, sick and war-ridden world.
Our story
Phase I
Some thoughts from Mark (video)
Mark became fascinated by the story of the revolt in the early 2000s, and read all of the available histories, from some of the mediaeval chronicles, to accounts written by left historians in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, and by contemporary academics.
In 2004 he published a history of the revolt: When Adam Delved and Eve Span: A History of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, New Clarion Press.
This led to Mark appearing on Tony Robinson's Time Team two-hour special about the Peasants' Revolt, bringing the story to a television audience.
Following the chance encounter between Mark and John, work towards obtaining funding began. Success came in the form of £5k from the Artists International Development Fund of the British Council.
This paid for Mark, John and a collaborator Colin Leggo, to travel to Philadelphia to work with a US theatre group there for one week to produce a first script. The group were hosted by Professor Andy Lamas of the University of Pennsylvania. Mark, John and Colin were very pleased to work with amazing actors in Philadelphia - Mary Toumanen, Becky Martin and Theodora Rodine.
When it is finished the script will be published with Open Book Publishers. This is an open-source publisher. The script will be free to download. Production companies and theatre groups will be able to adapt it to suit their cultural and political context, to make it relevant to their audiences. Performances will use non-traditional casting so that any actor - of any sex, gender, ethnicity, or ability-status - will be able to play any role. Staging the play, will require only very small budgets, and will need minimal staging effects and propping.
Phase II
Some thoughts from John (video)
Work on When Eve Span stopped for two years as it did with so many other projects, because of the Covid crisis and lockdown. Workshops that had been planned for 2020 to develop the script, could not go ahead. Finally, in February 2022, they did.
Three days of workshops took place at the Rose and Crown theatre in Walthamstow, London. A rehearsed reading happened at the end of the workshopping week, on the evening of Friday 11 February. A paying audience of 70 attended that evening, with half of the proceeds going to the Stand Up to Racism campaign.
The cast of the Rose and Crown rehearsed reading, 11 February 2022
The result of the workshops and Friday performance, was a much-developed script, but still with much left to improve.
A second rehearsed reading happened at the Marxism Festival in London on 2 July, 2022.
Phase III
This is the project-phase for which funds are needed. We intend to deliver a full-staged production of When Eve Span, at venues in London, Liverpool and other parts of the UK.
The script will continue to be edited and improve with each staging, only reaching its final, to-be-published form after several performances.
The full costs of this final phase of the project will include: staging, costume and propping; actors’ pay; travel and accommodation for the troupe; and publicity and marketing.
We have received generous support from the Liverpool Network Theatre and from the International Marcuse Society in the US.
Some costs will be covered by ticket sales. However, we estimate that this will cover only about 10% of the full costs.
We are still around £3k off our final target.
Ultimately, we will trim the ambition of the project to fit the final budget we achieve from our fund-raising efforts. Of course, the more we raise, the more performances we can stage. If we are successful in all of our fundraising work, we will be aiming to take the production to venues around the UK in autumn 2023.
So, what will you get if you support When Eve Span?
We thank you for your attention in reading this far. We hope we still have your interest.
We will appreciate all donations, no matter what size.
However, we will promise the following benefits for different sizes of donation.
£1-£100
You name will appear as a donor on the programme for all the performances.
£100-£500
You will receive a signed piece of artwork for When Eve Span.
Above £500
You will have free seats for yourself and three others, for all of the performances we stage.
Are you a member of a trade union?
We are especially interested in support from trade unions. If your union sponsors the project the union logo, and appropriate branch or region, will be displayed on future publicity, theatre programmes, etc.