 One of Britain's most revolutionary and individual theatre directors, Joan
Littlewood made occasional forays into film and television and had strong views
on the arts, as she did on many other subjects. Known for her trademark peaked
cap and forthright manner, she was a formidable figure on the British cultural
landscape.
Born in Stockwell, South London in 1914 to unmarried parents, she was a
precocious child and left RADA because she found the teaching stifling and
unoriginal. Moving to Manchester, she met and married Jimmie Miller, later known
as folk singer Ewan MacColl. Littlewood and Miller ran the Theatre Workshop, a
left-wing troupe travelling Britain and Europe performing shows developed by the
cast through improvisation. They found a permanent London home in 1953 at the
Theatre Royal, Stratford East, where they had successes such as Brendan Behan's
The Hostage and the musicals Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be and Oh! What a
Lovely War.
Littlewood had a dislike of classically trained actors, who often found it
difficult to adapt to her improvisatory methods. Consequently, she regularly
took on those with no real acting experience; her repertory company included
figures such as Brian Murphy, Stephen Lewis and Barbara Windsor, who among
others, went on to successful film and television careers. The uncompromising
Littlewood often accused her former apprentices of 'selling out' when they moved
on to commercially successful and artistically undemanding television work.
In 1962, she got the chance to direct the feature film of her successful
production, Sparrers Can't Sing (as Sparrows Can't Sing). She kept the cast from
the original stage show - something which hadn't happened when the film version
of A Taste of Honey went into production under the direction of Tony Richardson
the year before, when only Murray Melvin kept his role. Littlewood found the
experience of directing a film frustrating, as did her crew, who had to try and
work around her lack of attention to continuity details and her encouragement of
spontaneity. The film was not well received, the Cockney dialogue so
incomprehensible that it had to be subtitled for American audiences, and
Littlewood never directed another feature.
But this wasn't the end of her contribution to film and television. In 1964
she made a series of egg commercials for the Egg Marketing Board, each a mini
story about a housewife (Theatre Workshop regular Avis Bunnage) assuming a
different persona each morning. And the film Bronco Bullfrog (d. Barney Platts
Mills, 1969) would never have been made without Littlewood's encouragement of
the kids who hung around the Theatre Royal to explore their lives through drama.
She also conceived and directed a pilot for a television series around 1966.
Bijou in Hyderabad was filmed in India and starred Maxwell Shaw, but the pilot
was never completed and no further episodes were shot.
She was a popular interviewee on television, often talking about issues
important to her, such as inner-city housing and the future of Britain's youth.
Her biggest ambition was to build a 'Fun Palace' In London, where people could
go for pure enjoyment. She deplored the lack of facilities and entertainment
provided by the high-rise housing springing up in postwar London; the
destruction of community spirit which accompanied the demolition of back-to-back
terraces is a major theme of Sparrows Can't Sing. To her great disappointment,
the Fun Palace was never built; the death of her long-term partner Gerry Raffles
in 1975 marked the end of her theatrical career and she lived out the rest of
her life away from the spotlight.
Jo Botting
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FILM & TV CREDITS
