<EM>Theatres of Conscience</EM> offers an invaluable and essential insight into four touring British theatre companies whose work and contributions to post-war British theatre have largely gone unnoticed. Combining a rigorous scholarly evaluation of their work and their broadly ideological and ethical contribution to wider post-war developments in British theatre. Peter Billingham offers the reader a unique insight into four companies which, motivated by enthusiasm, principles and creative innovation, sought to take the theatre of conscience to theatre-less communities in wartime Britain and during the following decade. Contemporaries of - amongst others - Joan Littlewood's <EM>Theatre Workshop</EM>, the <EM>Pilgrim Players</EM>, the <EM>Adelphi Players</EM>, the <EM>Compass Players</EM> and the <EM>Century Theatre</EM> represent a significant but rather overlooked phase in the development of twentieth-century British theatre.