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Re-imagining Classics
One of the original aims of Merseyside Unity was to reconnect people with the cultural achievements of the past — not as distant history, but as a living inheritance for everyone. Early on, the company focused on agit-prop theatre and new writing, but after the war there was space to turn back to the classics and explore them afresh.
From the Greeks — Women of Troy (1957) and Lysistrata (1959) — through to the dark intrigue of Webster’s Jacobean tragedies, lesser-known Restoration comedies, and the more modern “classics” of George Bernard Shaw, Unity brought a remarkable range of works to Liverpool audiences.
The opening up of Calderstones Park for performances — rooted in the wartime ‘Holidays at Home’ scheme — and the building of the Garden Theatre in 1947 created new opportunities to share theatre more widely. Shakespeare played a central role here for the Unity, with productions including As You Like It (1945), Love’s Labour’s Lost (1952), The Merry Wives of Windsor (1953), A Winter’s Tale (1954) and King John (1957).
There was also room for ambition. To mark the centenary of Shaw’s birth, Unity staged Man and Superman (1956), but sensibly decided that even the most enthusiastic summer audience might struggle with the full five-hour version. Instead, they presented a shorter version at Calderstones, before opening the next club theatre season with the famous third act, Don Juan in Hell.
Unity didn’t just stage classics — they reshaped them. The company often looked for contemporary relevance, sometimes creating their own adaptations to make those connections sharper. In 1948, they presented their own version of Molière’s The Miser. They also reworked Volpone as The Fox Trap, a production that proved especially popular. It was chosen for the inaugural Theatre in the Round Festival in Scarborough (1960), alongside another Unity favourite, Shaw’s anti-war play O’Flaherty V.C.
That same year, The Fox Trap brought further recognition when it won a prize at the British Drama League’s annual festival, leading to an invitation to perform at the Mülheim Biennial Festival in Germany. Meanwhile, their adaptation of Mak and the Shepherds — from a Wakefield medieval mystery play — also found success, winning the Gertrude Usher Award in the first round of the British Drama League festival and reaching the divisional final in 1957.
Of course, not everyone was convinced. By the 1970s, some critics felt that Unity’s polished productions of the classics risked feeling out of step, particularly as Alan Dossor’s Everyman Theatre was gaining attention for bold, contemporary political work.
Still, these productions show how Unity continually balanced past and present — bringing classic theatre into new settings, new forms, and new conversations with its audiences.
