Research for the Banner Theatre Company production of 'Sweatshop'

There are two groups of records: a series of photographic slides of streets, factories and other premises in Luton, Ref. Z 852/ 1-94 and a series of cassette tapes of recorded interviews with local community contacts and individual workers Ref. Z852/ 2/ 1 -.

<p>See the Leisure Committee, Item No.10, paragraph 2, 14 January 1995.</p>

Some of the information is of a sensitive nature concerning individual employers and employees and for this reason access to the tape interviews is according to the archivist's discretion.

Acc.No. 7542

The Banner Theatre Company of Birmingham specialises in producing documentary musical plays on contemporary social issues based upon 'actuality' that is on taped recorded interviews with people about their experiences. The Revenue Grants Applications Panel of Bedfordshire County Council gave a grant of £ 2,000 towards the pre production research for the play 'Sweatshop' a project on the housing and working conditions of ethnic minorities and studying their exploitation in particular.

Part of this research included recorded interviews with a variety of contacts in Bedford and Luton about local working conditions including information on the general social and economic conditions in Bedfordshire, and particularly of the ethnic minorities as well as a giving a series of personal biographies of individual working lives.