Questors, Jesters and Renegades

This is the vital story of the amateur theatre as it developed from the medieval guilds to the modern theatre of Ayckbourn and Pinter, with a few mishaps and missed cues along the way. Michael Coveney - a former member of Ilford's Renegades - tells this tale with a charm and wit that will have you shouting out for an encore.

Between the two world wars, amateur theatre thrived across the UK, from Newcastle to Norwich, from Bolton to Birmingham and Bangor, championed by the likes of George Bernard Shaw, Sybil Thorndike, and J B Priestley. Often born out of a particular political cause or predicament, many of these theatres and companies continue to evolve, survive and even prosper today.

This is the first account of its kind, packed with anecdote and previously unheard stories, and it shows how amateur theatre is more than a popular pastime: it has been endemic to the birth of the National Theatre, as well as a seedbed of talent and a fascinating barometer and product of the times in which we live.

Some of the companies Coveney delves into - all taking centre stage in this entertaining and lively book - include the Questors and Tower Theatre in London; Birmingham's Crescent Theatre; The Little Theatre in Bolton, where Ian McKellen was a schoolboy participant; the Halifax Thespians; Lincolnshire's Broadbent Theatre, co-founded by Jim Broadbent's father and other conscientious objectors at the end of World War II; Crayford's Geoffrey Whitworth Theatre, where the careers of Michael Gambon and Diana Quick were launched; Anglesey's Theatr Fach, a crucible of Welsh language theatre; and Cornwall's stunning cliff-top Minack.

“The subject is fascinating and under-investigated: to the best of my belief this is the first attempt to provide an account of it. Michael Coveney, one of our most widely experienced and highly respected theatre critics, is an ideal narrator.”

A fascinating book on am-dram. The Observer A wide-ranging, insightful and very funny book that charts our fascination with theatre. Camden New Journal Richly entertaining and informative ... What comes across vividly is that the amateur movement has made a huge contribution to the nation's story and even to the idea of a National Theatre. Country Life An irresistible snoop into the world where so many of us were first tempted into the footlights. Michael Coveney is a trail-blazing theatrical critic; no one could tell this story better. Celia Imrie I particularly admire its readiness to face the patronage and belittlement of amdram and find compelling arguments to persuade sceptical readers to think again ... [it] is continuously well-researched and propelled by argument, but never preachy. Irving Wardle, writer and theatre critic The book will also fill a vital gap in the theatrical bookshelves and relate the amateur movement to professional theatre and the wider society. Michael Billington, Guardian theatre critic Sir Stanley Wells, scholar and author Amateur theatre in his vision is the Brazilian forest of the stage, pumping out the oxygen we all feed off. It's historically informative, vividly personal, and - that rare thing - literally indispensable to an in-depth understanding of the place of theatre in the life of the nation. A genuinely important book, which also manages to be continuously entertaining. Simon Callow, actor

Michael Coveney was editor of Plays and Players and chief theatre critic, successively, on the Financial Times, the Observer, and the Daily Mail. His other books include a history of the Glasgow Citizens Theatre, and critical biographies of Mike Leigh, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ken Campbell and Maggie Smith.

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