Casa date for the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

Robert Tressell’s classic novel The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is being brought to the stage at the Casa later this month.

Merlin Productions Inc presents the production at the Hope Street venue on August 24-25 as part of Theatre at the Casa.

Tressell was born Robert Noonan in Dublin in 1870, later moving to London as a child, although in 1890 he was recorded as living in Everton, where he was a sign writer. He served six months in prison in the city for burglary.

On release he emigrated to South Africa where he worked in the building trade, returning to England at the start of the 20th century.

His most famous work, penned in 1910, follows the fortunes of a group of painters and decorators and their families as they struggle to survive in the face of exploitative employers, unemployment, debt and abject poverty.

The original manuscript was turned down by a number of publishers, and, suffering from TB and with his health failing, Tressell was on his way to Canada when he died at Liverpool Royal Infirmary in February 1911.

He was buried in a pauper’s grave in Walton Park Cemetery. His book was published posthumously in 1914.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is at the Casa in Hope Street on August 24-25. Tickets are £15 at the bar or on the website HERE