Activism in the 80s

Go to a typical UK theatre show, and for every 10 people in the audience, seven will be women. This isn't new. Surveys in the 1980s showed that at least half of theatre audiences were women at that time. But inside the theatre industry, women faced a glass ceiling made of stone.  "One of the key stereotypes about women directors was that women were okay on the small scale. But large scale...

One day in 2008, a radio interview grabbed the attention of playwright Tracy Ryan. Irish Department store owner Ben Dunne was trying to apologise to a former employee. It wasn't going well. "So I was kind of like, What's this about? So I just started googling and looking around and then started to read about the strike and I was like, wow." That employee, Mary Manning, had spent mo...

In 1980s Britain, the anti-apartheid movement drew nationwide support. Its mission was to end South Africa's racist apartheid system. And as TV reports from that country showed increasing violence, support for anti-apartheid grew. "With the media coverage. We could look at, oh, my goodness, this system is actually attacking children. It's shooting children". The growth in support w...

1980s South Africa was a nation in the grip of Apartheid - a regime as brutal as it was absurd. Every person was assigned a racial category: White, Indian, Coloured or Native. One way to determine this was the 'pencil test'. A pencil is pushed into your hair. If it falls out, you're White. If not, you're heading for a different category. And because Apartheid law prohibited people...

On a June morning in 1984, one of the most violent episodes in British industrial relations unfolded. 5000 striking miners gathered at the Orgeave Coke processing plant in South Yorkshire. They'd face an assault by some 6000 police. "Thatcher and her cronies decided to try and smash the trade union movement and they organised set pieces in order to do that."   As police and picketers c...

Summer 1984. Dublin. A women approaches the checkout at Dunnes, holding two grapefruit. The 21-year old at the till apologises. The fruit is from Apartheid South Africa. She won't ring them up. The Dunnes Store Strike is about to begin. "We weren't looking for money. We weren't looking for new uniform. It was a discussion to be had... around the sale of this product". In the mi...

Welcome to Activism in the 80s, a riveting journey through the political and cultural forces that defined the 1980s - and continue to influence our lives today. Creative Director of Ardent Theatre, Andrew Muir, invites you to join this compelling exploration of a pivotal decade in history. In the 1980s, the world witnessed seismic shifts and profound moments that shaped our present. From the fall...