Providing a new way of thinking about industrialism and its history through the lens of one of Britain's most recognisable heritage brands, Catherine Hindson explores the creativity that was at the heart of Cadbury's operation in the early twentieth century. Guided by Quaker Capitalism, employees at Bournville took part in recreational and educational activities, enabling imagination to flourish. Amidst this pattern of work and play arose the vibrant phenomenon that was factory theatre, with performances and productions involving tens of thousands of employees as performers and spectators. Home-grown Bournville casts and audiences were supplemented by performers, civic leaders, playwrights, academics, town planners, and celebrities, interweaving industrialists with the city's theatrical and visual arts as well as national entertainment cultures. This interdisciplinary study uncovers the stories of Bournville's theatre and the employees who made it, considering ground-breaking approaches to mental and physical health and education.

‘Catherine Hindson draws striking parallels in her conclusion between the corporate ethos cultivated at Cadbury’s and that nowadays espoused at Legoland, but what is most striking, reading her study, is how thoroughly the world it explores has vanished, not always regrettably. As she points out, what happened at Bournville was not exactly amateur theatre: all these thousands of people were performing, albeit out of hours, in their roles as employees. Cadbury’s clearly provided them with wonderful facilities for making theatre, but at the same time it conscripted their leisure in order to project a utopian, PR-friendly vision of happy, unalienated collective endeavour. This excellent, richly researched study shows how playing was really part of their work.’

Michael Dobson Source: The Times Literary Supplement

‘Hindson’s excellent book rewards study and will inspire study. Its importance lies not only in documenting an untold aspect of theatre history; it also illuminates the present … Hindson’s interdisciplinary monograph deserves wide readership … this book carries a significant message about theatre’s fundamental importance in everyday life.’

Helen Nicholson Source: Modern Drama

‘[An] outstanding and purposefully detailed evacuation of the archive. Rich pickings indeed.’

Trish Reid Source: Performance Research

‘[A] captivating history of performance events housed within the Cadbury chocolate factory at Bournville.… in taking seriously the consequence of Cadbury Bournville’s theatrical endeavors, Hindson reminds readers that deep readings of workers’ cultural lives are vital to our historical understandings of working-class individuals and that with concerted effort we can reconstruct and rehabilitate these highly impactful performance initiatives to better and more fully understand working-class humanity.’

Mary McAvoy Source: Labor: Studies in Working-Class History