The Reluctant Escapologist: Adventures in Alternative Theatre

by Mike Bradwell, Mike Leigh (Foreword)

An unrivalled unofficial history of the rise, and partial fall, of fringe theater, Mike Bradwell's deadpan story is one of the funniest and angriest books to come out of theater today. As he travels through a counterculture peopled by scheming opportunists, dreamers, and prophets, Bradwell makes us marvel at his resilience and creativity.

320 pages, Paperback

First published May 17, 2011

About the author

Michael John Bradwell was a British theatre director. He founded the Hull Truck Theatre in 1971 and directed all of their shows for ten years including his own devised plays The Knowledge, Oh What!, Bridget’s House, A Bed of Roses and Still Crazy After All These Years. Hull Truck was the first British Fringe Company to be invited to play the National Theatre and to create new drama for BBC Television.
He was Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre from 1996 until 2007. His book on alternative theatre, The Reluctant Escapologist, won the Society for Theatre Research's Theatre Book Prize for 2010.
He trained at East Fifteen Acting School. He played Norman in Mike Leigh's award winning film Bleak Moments and worked as an underwater escapologist and fire eater with Hirst's Charivari and as an Actor/Musician with the Ken Campbell Roadshow.