Dave Gibson Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page
From Socialist Worker, 22 November 2016.
Transcribed by Christian Høgsbjerg.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Dare Devil Rides to Jarama
by Neil Gore
Townsend Productions’ latest play tells the story of two Communists – dirt track racer Clem “Dare Devil” Beckett and intellectual Chris Caudwell. They join the International Brigades to fight Franco’s fascists in Spain.
David Heywood and Neil Gore give virtuoso acting performances, playing all the parts. All their work combines song with quick-fire scenes with imaginative settings.
The songs of folk artist Ewan MacColl capture the spirit of young Communists from Manchester in the early 1930s.
One of the most memorable songs tells the story of the 1932 Kinder Scout Mass Trespass.
Thousands of protesters, including Clem, defied the landowners to walk across the Derbyshire countryside.
The first act focuses on Clem as he tries to organise a dirt track riders association to stand up to their unscrupulous bosses.
Blacklisted, he becomes a wall of death rider, and works at Fords as a mechanic.
Clem volunteers to drive ambulances to Spain to support the Republican side. Chris is a volunteer driver too.
The second act is all set in Spain from their arrival up to the Battle of Jarama in 1937.
The second act is pacier than the first. It centres on exchanges between the two comrades while they are stationed at the British Battalion training camp.
Two contrasting characters, they are linked by their desire to fight for a better world and crush the fascist uprising.
The spirit of resistance burns through everything they do and the play.
Dave Gibson Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page
Last updated: 16 August 2017