Liverpool's Unity theatre explores its radical history and tradition

Liverpool’s Unity Theatre is exploring its own radical history this spring in a Heritage Lottery-funded programme of events.

A Radical Re-imagining encompasses theatre, music, art, workshops, talks and panel discussions and community events and includes a special archival exhibition at Liverpool John Moores University’s Mount Pleasant Campus Library.

And the celebratory season will culminate in a specially devised new production, Stage Left, at the Hope Place theatre on June 4-6.

The Unity’s artistic director Eli Randle explains: “I was thinking about what Unity stood for, why it exists and how none of its rich history isn’t present in our building or archived, and so decided to create this project which looks at that past and also to the future through new work with young people.

“The heritage is a testament to the role of the arts in fostering social awareness and political dialogue and it is a privilege to be able to explore this through the project.”

The A Radical Re-imagining exhibition, running from May 14 to June 28, explores the history of Merseyside Unity Theatre from 1937-87.

Above: A slideshow of images from the Unity Theatre archives

Visitors to the library in Maryland Street can see original documents and photographs and discover hidden stories about a group of talented, determined performers that put politics at the heart of performance. The theatre’s archives stretch to more than 200 boxes.

A Radical Re-imagining aims to take audiences on a journey back through time, celebrating the building's incredibly unique history – originally as Liverpool's very first Jewish synagogue on Hope Place and then its transformation into what is now Unity Theatre.

The project will also focus heavily on Unity's origins as a national movement for social change – where politically and socially conscious contemporary works produced in Liverpool challenged conventional theatre and addressed themes of workers’ rights, fascism, capitalism and wider issues of inequality at a national level.

The Unity was founded as the Merseyside Left Theatre in the 1930s, with the aim of creating experimental and radical work and making theatre more accessible to the working class. It was renamed as the Merseyside Unity Theatre during the Second World War.

A Radical Re-imagining runs from May 14 to June 28 at the Unity Theatre and other venues. For the full programme of events and activities visit the website HERE