Alternative theatre and the state.

This thesis examines the interaction between the state and the alternative theatre movement in the 1980s. The first chapter deals with Thatcherism, the most active political force in the 1980s. It set out to convert Britain to a system based on the free market and on Victorian values: The chapter analyses its ideological roots, and evaluates its success. The second chapter deals with the efffect of Thatcherite philosophy on the Arts Council (Britain's largest arts funding body). The chapter discusses the structure and practice of the Arts Council, and guages the effect of economic and political pressures on those structures in the 1980s. The third chapter discusses the work of the Labour-controlled Greater London Council between 1981 and its abolition in 1986. The Council operated policies designed to involve the ordinary Londoner. The chapter places the G.L.C. in Labour Party history; assesses the impact of its approach on the Council's arts funding policy; and asseses the successes and failures of this policy. The fourth chapter deals with the alternative theatre movement.

It discusses the movement's growth during the 1970's, and its developing relationship to the state. The chapter then analyses the effect of economic, political and social pressures on the field in the 1980s.The fifth chapter deals with Scottish theatre. It does so for two reasons; firstly because the state framework, the cultural development, and the political landscape of Scotland differ from the rest of the country; and secondly, because of this difference, the impact of the alternative theatre movement on Scotland has been substantially different to that in England. The thesis concludes that, though the political atmosphere in the 1980s has been generally hostile, alternative theatre survives, because the field itself has changed, and because it has found support in some sections of the state.