Revisiting 1960s class warfare
Daniel Nelson
Lessons on Revolution is like a dramatic, imaginatively presented lecture, which is appropriate since it’s about a 1968 London School of Economics student uprising.
The anger stemmed from the actions of White settlers in what was then Rhodesia, trying to establish a 1000-year Reich to block majority rule.
Many of the settlers were of British origin and the colonial government seeking to rein them in without fighting was Britain. What brought the struggle home to students in the metropole was the presence and actions of Walter Adams, the principal of the University College of Rhodesia, who went on to become LSE director at a time when protest and revolution were in the air.
Six decades later, the headline-grabbing events at the university, culminating in a 3,000-student sit-in, have been researched and written by Samuel Rees and Gabriele Uboldi with a handful of props and theatrical flourishes.
Rees, a co-founder of Carmen Collective, focuses on “tackling big ideas in intimate ways.” Uboldi is an award-winning artist and producer.
They are personable and engaging and maintain a light touch, adding depth and relevance by linking 1968 to protest movements today, particularly on issues which affect their own lives: gay rights and rapacious landlords.
Their theatrically enhanced history lesson, however, cries out for more direct comparisons with the successes and failures of social movements like Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil, or a questioning of the legacy, if any, of the anti-colonial campaigns at the time of apartheid-era Rhodesia for today’s anti-racist demonstrations.
Lessons on Revolution is at the Jermyn Street Theatre, 186 Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6ST, until 3 May. Info: Jermyn Street Theatre
18 June, Lessons on Revolution, performance and discussion with Rees and Uboldi, plus LSE Library archivist Lisa McQuillan and LSE Department of Media and Communications Wendy Willems, 6-8pm, part of the LSE Festival: Visions for the Future on 16-21 June.