Steve Pratt talks to Neil Gaore about the play United We Stand, which features modern day injustice

IN the summer of 1972 some 300,000 building workers launched their industry’s first national all-out strike to end cash "lump" payments and seek better pay by using the controversial tactic of flying pickets. Five months after the end of the strike 24 builders were arrested in North Wales and charged with offences including conspiracy to intimidate and affray. They were convicted at Shrewswbury Crown Court in 1973 and three were jailed, including building workers Des Warren and Ricky Tomlinson.

More than 40 years on the repercussions of the strike continue with picket-turned-actor Ricky Tomlinson – now a household name thanks to roles in Brookside and The Royle Family – among the leaders of the high profile Shrewsbury 24 Campaign seeking to overturn what they see as the unjust prosecution of the 24 building workers.

A new play, United We Stand, tells the story behind the dispute with a cast of two actor-musicians and featuring music directed by folk musician John Kirkpatrick. The current leg of the tour includes date in Richmond, Helmsley, Scarborough and Harrogate.

Neil Gore of Townsend Productions says the play follows the company’s productions of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist and We Will Be Free! –The Tolpuddle Martyrs Story. “We encourage encourage openness and discussion with our audiences and they’re not shy about advising us about future stuff which is great. It’s a good dialogue,” he says.

“Quite often people said why don’t you do a show about Shrewsbury. I looked into it and thought this is quite a story and there’s a nice connection with Ragged Trousered Philanthropist because it’s a story of workers, but 70 years on and from the Tolpuddle Martyrs point of view, it’s another story of great injustice and one that has so many facets to it.”

One aspect is that Tomlinson, a plasterer who was playing the clubs in a band at weekends, had a change of career following the prison sentence. “His life changed because of the strike and Des Warren is an extraordinary character – a committed trade unionist and tireless worker fighting for better conditions in the building industry.”

For Gore, who also appears in the play, the difficulty was getting everything into one show. It feels when playing it, he says, like doing four or five plays in one. With just two actors, you have to find theatrical tricks to tell the story.

Gore plays Tomlinson in the play, which is directed by Louise Townsend. “This is Ricky before he was an actor. People aren’t watching The Royle Family or Brookside. He was a plasterer playing the clubs and lived for that. He sees injustice and doesn’t like it, and that’s how he got involved with the campaign.”

United We Stand is also a piece of entertainment, Gore says. “You have to tell these stories in an accessible entertaining way. You don’t want to get bored watching earnest theatre. There’s nothing worse than seeing suffering on stage. To get people to engage with the piece is the answer, and what it deserves.

“There are wonderful speeches by Ricky which are heart-breaking. In the past decade the campaign has found more evidence about the strike and what went on. Information has been discovered that directly implicates politicians and MI5.”

National security has been blamed for the whole story not being revealed, but Gore sees it more as reputations being at stake. But can a play make a difference? “It can because some people don’t know about this story. Plenty of people turn up and say they had no idea about it, that it’s unbelievable and ask how could such a thing possibly happen,” he says.

There was never any question of Tomlinson himself appearing in the play. “He does do theatre, but he’s not a theatre animal,” says Gore who appears in the play with fellow actor William Fox.

But Tomlinson has welcomed the production saying, “It is 41 years since I together with Des Warren and John McKinsie Jones were charged with conspiracy and jailed. We were charged with conspiracy, but we believe the real conspiracy was between the government, the building contractors and the judiciary. Every worker should know what happened to us so as to ensure it does not happen again.”

  • Richmond Georgian Theatre, tomorrow. Box Office: 01748-825252; Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday. 01439-771700 and themet.bz; Scarborough Stephen Joseph Theatre, Tuesday. 01723-370541 and sjt.uk.com; Harrogate Theatre, March 18. 01423-502116 and harrogatetheatre.co.uk