Erwin Piscator's work as a producer/director in the Berlin of the 20's moved theatre away from the confines of domestic drama to the play of forces in world politics.

To equip the stage for this 'epic' approach, he employed a whole range of 20th century media; film, slides, and moving stages, permanently extending the expressive capability of the modern theatre. Working from Piscator's montage-book, 'Political Theatre', the film takes 'Piscator' as a series of themes: the politicisation of the theatre, the political and economic constraints involved and the invention of forms appropriate to ideological polemics; relocating these in context of cultural work in present day London.