United We Stand – Lighthouse, Poole

INDUSTRIAL relations is a subject difficult to stage. It takes real theatrical skill to turn what could be an arid exposition of facts into an entertaining, interactive experience.

This fine production does just that, using plenty of wit, music and innovative techniques to keep the evening rolling along at a cracking pace. There are scandals aplenty in modern Britain: tax avoidance is on an industrial scale, some care workers are being paid well below the minimum wage and zero hour contracts are often forced upon honest workers desperate for jobs.

Back in 1972 conditions in the building industry were also scandalous. Death and injuries on site were distressingly common, men were hired and fired on a whim, rates of pay fluctuated wildly and proper tradesmen saw unskilled labourers taking their jobs. Construction employers of all sizes kept the employment system, known as the Lump, wholly unregulated.

United We Stand is the story of the construction workers’ partially successful strike for better pay and conditions and the resulting persecution of the ‘Shrewsbury 24’. Two talented actors, William Fox and Brian O’Carroll, play a plethora of roles to expose the real conspiracy that led to the unjust conviction and imprisonment of three leading strike organisers. The unholy trinity of press, police and big business conspired with politicians to take revenge on men who had fought for basic employment rights.

We now have a better building industry. Not a single life was lost in all the construction for the 2012 Olympics. And many would say that other workers now face the spectre of crude exploitation. John Billington