Performing Dialect, Lancashire Dialect Writers on Stage in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
SOLD OUT
13th May 2010, 1-2pm
Emerald Grand Hall
Dr Paul Salveson, Head of Government and Community Strategy, Northern Rail.
From the mid nineteenth century to the Second World War, 'Lancashire dialect' enjoyed a mass audience. 'Penny sketches' by authors such as Edwin Waugh, Ben Brierley and later Allen Clarke (writing as 'Teddy Ashton') sold in hundreds of thousands. Most dialect writers supplemented their income by giving 'readings' - sometimes to public events but very often to institutional social gatherings such as the Co-op, trades unions, and other working class organisations across the cotton belt of Lancashire. The readings were often highly stylised: Edwin Waugh dressed in 'countryman' attire and punctuated his readings by thudding his walking stick on the floor. As well as writers reciting their own work, a small body of professional 'reciters and elocutionists' developed in the early twentieth century. This talk - which will include a selection of 'readings' - explores the rise and fall of a fascinating part of the dialect tradition.
Tickets: FREE (must be booked in advance)
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