Theatre in the Chocolate Factory: Women, Leadership and Performance at Cadbury's Bournville

Cadbury’s represents the heyday of British industrialism and remains a familiar global brand. Guided by Quaker Capitalism, employees at Cadbury’s Bournville factory took part in recreational and educational activities. In the first decades of the twentieth century sports, leisure, and entertainment were part of day-to-day Cadbury’s life. Creativity flourished. Amidst this culture of Work and Play, an astonishing amount of factory theatre was staged involving tens of thousands of Cadbury’s employees. Home-grown Bournville casts and audiences were supplemented by performers, civic leaders, playwrights, academics, town planners, and celebrities, interweaving Birmingham’s famous Quaker industrialists with the city’s theatre culture, visual artists, wider, national entertainment cultures, and ground-breaking approaches to mental and physical health and education. In Theatre in the Chocolate Factory I uncover stories of Bournville’s theatre, exploring the involvement of the firm’s women leaders in Cadbury’s creativity and positioning theatre at the heart of the factory’s operation.

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A light lunch will be available from 1pm in the Reception Room, first floor, School of Arts, 43 Woodland Road.

Bourneville Work's Magazine, February 1913. Cabrury's Archives and Heritage Services (Mondalez International)