“Laughter, cheerfulness in the midst of fire and blood! Does it seem immoral to you? Think about tomorrow, and you will understand!” Matej Bor, 1943

The revolutionary theatre movements of the 20th century sought to make theatre a weapon in the hands of the masses. But as well as exploding the conventions of the bourgeois stage, they appropriated their cultural heritage with humour and the ‘wild energy’ of the people. In this performance workshop, we will reimagine, rewrite and restage some examples from this radical tradition.

From Proletkult Kassel’s plan for a realistic production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream and *The Tempest Society *of the Movement of Arab Workers, to Yugoslav partisans performing Chekhov’s romantic comedies during the Battle of Neretva and workers in Glasgow gathering to listen to Leoncavallo’s opera I Pagliacci, bourgeois culture was subverted and transformed in the heat of struggle.

Joey Simons is an artist and writer from Glasgow. Exhibitions include Their Theatre and Ours (Market Gallery, 2025) and *Beyond the Forbidden Gate *(Glasgow International, 2024). He is the co-editor of Now's the Day, Now's the Hour: poems for John Maclean (Tapsalteerie, 2023), published to mark the centenary of the great Glasgow revolutionary, and Let Us Act for Ourselves: selected works of Freddy Anderson (Platform, 2020), and he recently contributed to Thomas Muntzer, a play by Berta Lask: commentaries and interventions (Rab Rab Press, 2025). He is a founding member of the Glasgow Housing Struggle Archive and a long-time member of Living Rent, Scotland's tenant and community union.

Drawing on MayDay Rooms' archive of workers' theatre materials and guided by Joey Simons we'll reimagine moments from this tradition, working together to stage our own act of collective subversion.

In collaboration with MayDay Rooms and Mosaic Rooms. No theatre experience required.

flyer photographer credit: Angelina Radaković