All Together Now: An Alternative View of Theatre and the Community

In All Together Now (first published in 1984), Steve Gooch, himself a playwright with extensive experience of ‘community theatre’, looks at the relationship of the theatre to the community in which it takes place. Taking the work of contemporary ‘community theatre’ as a stimulus, he gives a ‘behind-the-scenes’ analysis of the failure of commercial theatre—in the subsidised sector as well as the West End—to transcend the mechanisms of box-office and tradition, and to play a vital and integral part in the life of its audience. Examining the initiatives of small theatres and touring companies in the seventies, Gooch looks critically at their work practices and forms of organisation and draws some positive pointers for the future. As much about the internal workings of theatre production as about the content and outward face of its shows, All Together Now offers new insights into a culture divided between ‘high and low’, ‘popular and serious’.