The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists By Robert Tressell

Wednesday 5th May - The Casa, Hope Street, Liverpool £3/2
Thursday 6th May - United Services Club, Clevedon Street, Liverpool 8
Friday 7th May - Kensington Fields Community Centre, Hall Lane, Liverpool 7
Saturday 8th May - Unity Theatre, Hope Place, Liverpool £5/4

Doors open 7.30pm
Tickets for Casa and Unity Event Available from Venues.

www.geocities.om/shorefields_drama

COMMENT:
The book on which this play is based is part of the hidden and often lost history of 'us' the British working class.

The book, the story, is the first account written in English of the lives and views of a group of working men, written with realism and passion, not by an outside observer, but by "one of themselves". In the 20th century this was a classic of the Labour movement.

Robert Noonan, who wrote this book under the pen-name of Robert Tressell, was a house-painter of Irish extraction. After various wanderings, he settled in Hastings in 1902, and worked for local builders. In his spare time he wrote "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists". He died of tuberculosis in 1911, in the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. Three years later, in April, 1914, his book was published by Grant Richards Ltd.

The following quote from the original title page is by the author.
"Being the story of twelve month in, Hell, told by one of the damned, and written down, by Robert Tressell".

What is also little known is Robert Noonan is buried in the cemetry opposite Walton Prison, near the Rice Lane City Farm, a large black tombstone marks his grave.