The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists – The Maltings, Berwick
Neil Gore, presents a one-person version of the classic novel by Robert Tressell featuring projection, political conjuring tricks, live music and song.
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists follows a group of painters and decorators as they renovate ‘The Cave’ – a three-storey townhouse, for Mayor Sweater. It traces their hardships and struggles for survival in a complacent and stagnating Edwardian England.
These workers are the ‘philanthropists’ who throw themselves into back-breaking work for poverty wages in order to generate profit for their masters. They are joined by artist Owen, whose spirited attacks on the dishonesty of Capitalism, along with his Socialist vision, highlight the exploitation in their workplace but also focuses on the inequality in society as a whole.
