'Collier Laddie'

Collier Laddie' was Banner Theatre's inaugural show, albeit intended originally as a one off performance run by the Birmingham Folk Centre (a drama grouping from the Grey Cock Folk Group). Charles Parker regarded this production as expressing, at least in embryo his ideas on proletarian culture. A motivation for the production was his conviction that the Radio Ballad 'The Big Hewer' had not truly reached the miners who had been its inspiration, because of the B.B.C.'s approach to cultural programming. (The Radio Ballads had originally been broadcast on the B.B.C. Home Service - forerunner of Radio Four and not regarded by Parker as a natural listening choice for many miners). He asked Rhoma Bowdler to adapt 'Collier Laddie' from 'The Big Hewer' in a manner that made it accessible to working people. Bowdler needed to work with the strengths of the available performers, which were musical rather than conventionally dramatic. The production established some basic elements which have since been incorporated in many other Banner performances; 'actuality' material, folk songs and slide projections. There was no conventional script. Instead, the dialogue consisted of a patchwork of contributions from miners from across British coalfields. 'Collier Laddie' was not intended to be a fixed entity, but could be modified dependent on feedback received from audiences. Unlike later Banner productions, 'Collier Laddie' was not politically hard hitting. Whilst it did consider unemployment in the inter-war period and the dangers of pit life, there was an emphasis on comradeship and craft pride in the mining industry at the expense of critical analysis of the adverse circumstances remaining in that industry. Subtitled 'A Legend of the Coalfields' the initial performance (to an invited group of miners) was received very positively. It generated requests for performances at miners' clubs and galas, such as the South Wales Gala Day and Yorkshire Demonstration and Gala, both in June 1974. Parker was heartened when Banner was invited to perform in Deal Welfare Club later that year, as a proportion of the original material for 'The Big Hewer' had been provided by miners at the nearby Betteshanger Colliery in Kent.

MS 1611/B/1