PLAYWRIGHT Stephen Lowe adapted Robert Tressell’s partly-autobiographical novel The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists in 1978 for Joint Stock, and the members of Frome Drama chose it for their autumn show, hot on the heels of a general election that has brought the Labour movement to power after years of Tory rule.

Tressell was a painter and decorator, as are the men (and here women) of his book, the heart of which is known as The Great Money Trick. It’s a brilliant demonstration of how the capitalists will always make their money grow at the expense of the workers, all done with a few slices of bread and three coins. And it’s a timeless answer, as relevant today as it was when the book was first published in 1914, three years after the writer’s death. The difference is the identity and numbers of “capitalists.”

Frome Drama director Andy Cork has gathered a talented cast of seven, playing the 15 roles in this thought-provoking but entertaining play with music. It is set in a “grand house” where the landowner engages an agent who appoints a coddy (foreman) to oversee works in various rooms of the house. Everyone in the upper chain takes his cut of the kitty, and the workers’ pay is squeezed and squeezed. When they are too old, or too ill, to work, their only release will be death or the workhouse.

The play is a constantly-moving exploration of the lives of working people, from their hours at work via the annual party, where they cheer on their employer in his quest to represent them in Parliament. The higher up the working hierarchy, the more craven and boot-licking are the workers – and the less inclined to support their colleagues.

Liz Hume is powerful as the idealistic and clear-thinking Frankie Owen, who tries to explain to her fellow workers how radical societal change is the only way their descent to inevitable poverty can be addressed. The company includes Terry Butler as Crass the twe-faced foreman, Sophie Turner as (unpaid) apprentice Bert, Tabitha Bradley as the increasingly angry and outspoken Harlow, the painter who finally understands Frankie’s warnings. Martyn Jessop is Easton, the out-of-work painter whose “agreement” to under-cut the other mens’ wages sows the seeds of future misery, Stephen Kebbell is the top-hatted Rushton, owner of the company, and doubles as the easy-going Philpott, who is scared to rock the boat. John Dunn is the elderly Sawkins and the pompous local councillor Sweater, whose parliamentary ambitions are the theme of the annual “beano”. The role of the dreaded manager Hunter is taken in turn by each member of the cast.

The format is challenging for an amateur company, but Andy Cork and his cast take it in their stride, producing vividly memorable scenes as the story progresses, demonstrating a real sense of the hopeless toil just to stay alive, while the rich get richer and the middle men lie and cheat.

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