Hackney New Variety Ltd

Cartoon Archetypical Slogan Theatre (CAST) began in 1965, after founder members Roland Muldoon, Claire Burnley [later Muldoon], Raymond Levene and David Hatton were ejected from the left wing Unity Theatre as a result of a failed attempt to make its productions more politically radical. Although all four members had trained and been employed behind the scenes as technical staff, the newly formed group saw them becoming the performers.

With the addition to the group of David 'Red' Saunders who had attended Roland Muldoon's and Levene's drama classes at the Working Men's College, [1965-1966], CAST produced its first original play 'John D Muggins is Dead'(1966), a 20 minute piece inspired by the movement against US involvement in Vietnam. Their next plays, performed by a series of ever changing line ups which would become the norm, were 'Mr Oligarchy's Circus' (1967) and 'The Trials of Horatio Muggins' (1967), both of which reflected the revolutionary struggles between young idealistic socialists and the English middle class. CAST usually played in non theatrical venues, such as technical colleges, universities and political meetings, where it gained a reputation for short, fast, political comedies (usually involving a protagonist with the surname of Muggins) which always played to the audience. As well as touring Britain, the group also travelled to Holland, France and Germany.

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