Goodbye Barcelona was inspired by a collection of interviews with surviving British Brigadiers who fought against Franco in the Spanish civil war from1936 –1939 as part of the international movement of volunteers compelled to take up arms, where governments would not make a stand against Franco and against fascism. The production tells the story of a significant yet overlooked European era of passionate, ideological and cultural struggle for ordinary citizens to live for what they believed in.  

Creative collaborators KS Lewkowicz and Judith Johnson hold the spotlight on the human urge to fight for a cause in the face of impossible opposition. Directed by Karen Rabinowicz, the musical genre lifts the stories of Sam, his brigadier comrades and their Spanish friends from true life accounts into a series of vignettes during two years in which the struggle intensifies and passions rise as, lives are lived, loved and lost. The dramatisation gives a sense of the era, and emphasises the temporal nature of human interaction at the time: the need to live and die with a certain rashness of existence. Yet it also seems to distance the audience from the immediacy of the story at times. The musicians and performers are all individually strong but the overall power of the piece could intensify in dynamics to really bring out the passion of the story.

‘Better to die standing up than to live on your knees’ – comes the rallying cry from La Passionara. Played by Laura Tebbutt she stands above the auditorium, a symbol of justice and inspiration to the cause.

Protagonist Sam leaves England for Spain. Just 18, he’s lost his father in a racist attack; alongside his mother he fights the Blackshirts on the streets of London. The play opens with the East End battle of Cable Street., The Arcola Theatre’s location, just a short distance from Balls Pond Rd where the British United Fascists occupied an office from 1935 -1940, and from Ridley Rd Market where, as recently as the 1960's, Mosley and his supporters were driven from the streets, makes this stirring opening ever more resonating.


Tom Gill as young Sam is vital and fiery, he and Katie Bernstein as Pilar, his young Spanish love, portray the impossibility of hoping for more than living in the moment and the sense of youth cut down by harsh experience through which a human bond endures. Jack Shalloo plays the plucky, sincere and steady Cockney George and Mark Meadows is the embittered but deeply loyal and mesmerising Jack, Sam’s comrades. Both performances are commanding and full-bodied, with different backgrounds and motivations their sparky interactions give an insight into the ‘split left’. The song ‘factions’ gives the characters licence to paint a satirical picture of the united face of any ‘wing’ of politics including an affectionate dig at anarchism. Lucy Bradshaw plays Rebecca, Sam’s mum who misses him so much she comes to Spain herself to nurse and to find her beloved son; she strikes the balance between pride at Sam’s passionate convictions and her terrible fear of losing him, in a feisty and spirited portrayal. Jack Killoran as Ernesto her lover embodies the Spanish freedom fighter with passion, humour and some impressive percussive movement on stilts.

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In a frequent refrain in moments of doubt, the volunteers sing.’we should never have come’, yet their doubt is always overcome with a strengthening of resolve. As the surviving volunteers leave, the cause defeated, the production suggests that rather than a failure, their goodbye is the end of a valid struggle and a forging of international unity. Goodbye Barcelona has all the makings of a rousing and emotional reflection on this era of history, it just needs to find its spark.

Bryony Hegarty

Runs until 23 December at The Arcola

For more information and booking click here