Theatre / The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff

"My name is Johnny Longstaff, I want to go to Spain."

"Will there be young lads somewhere,

Whose hearts are just as true?

When our old world has faded

Will theirs be almost new?"

The Ballad of Johnny Longstaf is a play (sort of) by Teesside trio The Young'uns (Sean Cooney, Michael Hughes and David Eagle) that first opened in 2018.

This piece of folk theatre tells the story of Johnny Longstaff - a man who was born in 1919 and went from begging on the streets to fighting in the Spanish Civil War. The show consists of narrations from the three, newspaper articles projected on stage, actual sound bites from the real Johnny (from an interview he did in the 1980s) and sixteen original songs.

You can listen to the soundtrack here.

Tropes:

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: In the very first song "Any Bread?" Johnny and his siblings literally begged adults for bread.
• Award-Bait Song: "Ta-Ra to Tooting" marks the first truly serious song, romantically looking back on the group of young men who sailed off to Spain to fight.
• Bathos: "Lewis Clive" alternates between comedy, tragedy and both at the same time.
• Big Brother Instinct: "Cable Street" says that Johnny felt very protective of the refugee Jews who had fled Nazi Germany.
• Bittersweet Ending: Granted Johnny died and carried some scars from his rough upbringing but by all accounts his later years were good and peaceful.
• Cerebus Syndrome:
  • The show overall is light-hearted enough in the first act, but of course takes a more emotional turn in the second - once they cover Johnny getting to Spain.
  • The songs "David Guest" and "Lewis Clive" start out light-hearted enough - talking about the fun antics that the respective men got up to. Then the final verses turn bittersweet as they cover the men's deaths.
• Coming of Age Story: The show covers Johnny's teenage years begging on the street and his twenties fighting in the war.
• Cue the Sun: "Ta-ra to Tooting" describes the sun rising as they sailed out to sea.
• The Dead Have Names:
  • "Ta-ra to Tooting" lists all the boys that went off to Spain.
  • "David Guest" and "Lewis Clive" highlight two of Johnny's deceased war comrades.
• Drives Like Crazy: Johnny in later years. He justified it by saying he learned to drive while in a tank fighting in Spain.
• Fire and Brimstone Hell: "Lewis Clive" alludes to hell being fiery and full of Fascists.
• Fire-Forged Friends: It's said that Johnny and a group of other homeless youths all banded together and tried to feed each other.
  "In the north we were poor, but we were poor together."
• Former Teen Rebel: Johnny himself. The song "Cable Street" describes his role in the Battle of Cable Street.
• Greek Chorus: The Young'uns themselves function as this, helping Johnny narrate his life.
• Grin of Audacity: Johnny at the end of "Robson's Song", ignoring all the reasons Mr Robson said not to go and fight.
  "My name is Johnny Longstaff. I want to go to Spain."
• Growing Up Sucks: "Any Bread?" covers Johnny's formative years, suffering through the Great Depression at the age of ten. He also left school at fourteen to work in a factory.
• Ironic Echo: "Something must be done" was David Guest's Catchphrase in life. It ended up becoming his last words.
• Kitchen Sink Drama: The first act focuses on Johnny's poverty during the Great Depression.
• Made of Iron: When Johnny lost his boot laces upon arriving in Spain, he proceeded to march barefoot with the rest of the army.
• Memetic Badass:invoked In-universe. The song about Lewis Clive certainly makes him out to be one - even in the afterlife.
• Nightmarish Factory: Downplayed. The factory Johnny worked in was rough - the song claiming he still has scars from working there. He was injured in an accident there and was fired and replaced while in hospital.
• Older Than They Look: Johnny is described as looking like twelve at age seventeen. He claimed he was nearly twenty and invoked the other trope.
• Oop North: Johnny was born in Stockton-on-Tees, which is in Durham.
• The Pollyanna: Seems to be the case for Johnny and his peers. During "Hostel Strike" they worked hard, dreaming of better days.
• Patter Song: "Hostel Strike" - which is very rapid and fast-paced.
• Postmodernism: Three people narrating and singing about a man's life, interspersed with real audio clips of the man - who will sometimes scold David Eagle for saying rude things.
• Posthumous Character: Johnny himself died in the year 2000. As he narrates portions of what happened, this makes him a Posthumous Narrator too - although he was of course alive when they were recorded.
• Rage Breaking Point: "Hostel Strike" covers Johnny and his friends finally rebelling against the awful conditions they had in the hostel.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: It was actually illegal for the boys to go fight in Spain, but they did so anyway because they believed in the cause.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: On the idealistic side. Despite having grown up in rough circumstances and experienced horrors in his youth, Johnny looks back fondly on a lot of his memories. Even the genuinely sad ones are portrayed as bittersweet.
• Twinkle Smile: Lewis Clive is described as having a "shining smile".
• Vocal Dissonance: "Any Bread?", "Carrying the Coffin", "Robson's Song", and "Hostel Strike" are quite jolly and upbeat, despite covering Johnny's poverty.
• War Is Glorious: Despite indulging War Is Hell as well, some of the songs do highlight the bravery and badassery of the men who fought - particularly Lewis Clive rescuing a drowning man and then going back to fetch his gun from the river.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The last part of the show briefly covers Johnny's later years.