TRIPLE ACTION THEATRE COLLECTION (Brotherton Special Collections Blog)

The Triple Action Theatre Collection has recently been catalogued by placement students in Special Collections.  Triple Action Theatre was a physical theatre company founded in 1969 by the director, Steven Rumbelow (1949-2016).

Rumbelow thought of actors’ bodies as living sculptures.  His work relied on dense metaphors rather than on the plot of a production, although he embraced poetic drama.  Many of Rumbelow’s productions were adapted from Shakespeare plays.

Special Collections holds a variety of material from Triple Action Theatre Company and its associated projects.  The Triple Action Theatre Collection contains scripts, many of which are heavily annotated and edited, providing evidence of the company’s methods of working.  There are quantities of photographs and publicity material.  Newspaper cuttings containing reviews show how the company’s work was received.

The company had strong links with Polish theatre collaborating with the Teatr Laboratorium and Jerzy Grotowski, and this is evident in the archives.  Members of the company participated in a Creative Arts Team project in New York in 1985-1986 designed to help young people into employment. There are papers from the project in the archive.

The company continued until 1981 when their Arts Council funding was cut, and it moved into Bretton Hall in Wakefield.   Members of the company went on to work on other arts projects