The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

Four Stars, The Times
Click here to read the full review

What is ‘sloshing’? What is the art of ‘bodging’? Anyone want a Victorian fire grate, knocked down price, no questions asked?

Howard Brenton’s new adaptation of Robert Tressell’s classic novel brings to life the tragic-comedy of a group of working men and their families as they
struggle for survival on the underside of Edwardian England. This is the most human of stories, asking questions about how we live that remain unanswered to this day.

Passionate, highly entertaining and gloriously funny, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists dramatises the little daily successes and the disasters of the group, living under the constant fear of being laid off by employers forever looking for new corners to cut. Both workers and bosses are caught in a system spiralling out of control, but why must the workers always come out worse?

In a famous comic scene, one of the decorators attempts to awaken his unenlightened fellows by trying to explain economics with slices of a loaf of bread. Can he shake them from their ‘philanthropy’ of working so hard for so little?

Robert Tressell was a working decorator who died in 1911 and was buried in a pauper’s grave. His famous novel was published in 1914 in a shortened form; over the next 30 years it achieved a special status, becoming an underground text as more and more of the original became available.

Howard Brenton’s plays include Pravda, written with David Hare (Festival 06), Weapons of Happiness, The Romans in Britain, Bloody Poetry, Paul, In Extremis and Never So Good.

Co-producers and sponsors

Co-produced with the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse

No productions found for 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists'.

• Previews/ Press Night: £21.50
• Evenings/ Matinees: £27.50

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  “On your left,” Bert says, “observe the Honourable Augustus Slumrent, the Con...

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  The Times
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  IT SEEMS fitting that the Everyman’s new production of socialist bible, The Ragged Trousere...

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  Liverpool Daily Post
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  The beginnings of the Labour party and the unions have often been linked to Robert Tressell&rsquo...

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  What's On Stage
• The audience crammed into a grossly overheated Liverpool Everyman to enjoy the latest stage producti...
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  ClickLiverpool.com