A scene from 2014’s Turfed at Hackney Downs Studios, now Hackney Showroom. Photograph: Hackney Showroom
Hackney’s newest theatre has been shortlisted to win £50,000 in the Jewson Building Better Communities prize.
Hackney Showroom, which officially opened in March, is appealing for public votes and is one of 63 UK-wide nominees for the award for community buildings projects.
Describing itself as offering “bold, exciting theatre for ordinary people”, the Hackney Showroom is a 4,000 square-foot former print works at Hackney Downs Studios.
The venue’s first official production was last month’s Politrix by The Big House, although works by Paines Plough, LIFT and others have been presented in the same space since 2013.
This large, industrial space has now been renovated, but there’s still work needed to complete the interior.
Nina Lyndon, who set up the Hackney Showroom with business partner Sam Curtis Lindsay, said: “We are committed to smashing down the barriers that make some cultural activity off limits for many. This project offers bold, exciting theatre for ordinary people. Affordable, informal and with doors wide open.”
Wendy (Nadége René) in Politrix. Photograph: Catherine Ashmore
In the Big House Theatre’s latest play Politrix, the embers of the London riots are still glowing.
This punchy piece of theatre, directed by Maggie Norris, explores the widening gulf between the halls of parliament and a swathe of inner-city youth once branded a “feral underclass” by its members.
With the exception of Ben Lambert who plays Conservative politician CJ, all the cast members are part of Big House Theatre’s 12-week drama programme aimed at getting care leavers from the ages of 18-23 involved in theatre.
The plot follows a Tory MP dragging a group of six young people on a whistlestop Westminster tour. Verbatim recordings of the cast’s own trip to the House of Commons are woven into Ben Musgrave’s script, making their voices audible above the legislators that claim to speak for them.
Determined to use the occasion to her advantage, Monroe (Camilla Ferdinand) asks CJ for help in getting her brother out of prison where he was sent for being present at the scene of a gang murder – a joint enterprise conviction.
He dithers before declining. “You saw me come in here with my bag of dog-eared papers and you thought: fuck”, she accuses him scornfully.
For Monroe’s friends, the environment of pomp and privilege is oppressive, and the halls of power morph into a dystopian house of horrors.
An ashen-faced Margaret Thatcher (another turn for Lambert, now in drag) rises from the dead and attacks Leo (Shane Cameron) and Wendy (Nadège René) for being a product of the ‘something for nothing’ culture of the welfare state.
Soldiers march past and security guards perform the rituals of stop and search. Authority is everywhere they turn. Respite is found in the chapel where kindred spirits lurk, suffragettes and revolutionaries, whose tales help to soothe the young friends’ jangled nerves.
With its concrete floors and high ceiling, the all-new Hackney Showroom is an ambitious space and the acoustics are tricky to control – ironic in a play about the struggles of being heard.
But the cast rises to the challenge and it would be hard to pick out a standout performance from the wealth of fresh young talent on display. From the entertaining Fizz (Auzelina Pinto) to the angry K (Moses Gomes-Santos), each character has formidable presence.
After the play I ask 22-year-old Kieran Roach, who gives an affecting performance as the quiet Rico, about the anger that runs throughout the piece. “It’s not anger, it’s frustration,” he gently corrects me, “frustration that we are not being listened to”.
Politrix gives a voice to those who were the collateral of the 2011 chaos. For politicians puzzling over how to build bridges with Britain’s youth it should be compulsory viewing.
Politrix is at Hackney Showroom, Hackney Downs Studios, Amhurst Terrace, E8 2BT until 11 April.
Serael Asphall as Rox and Veronique Andre as Shanice in The Realness. Photograph: Catherine Ashmore
Whether a hollow boast, a mark of authenticity or merely a matter of taste, the notion of ‘realness’ has been central to contemporary culture for decades.
Hip-hop artists frequently lay claim to being ‘the realest’, from legendary rapper Tupac Shakur to Iggy Azalea.
For the 16-strong cast of a new musical opening at Hackney Downs Studios this November, however, it is about learning to face the harsh realities of life.
Veronique Andre plays Shanice in The Realness, a musical about Jay, a young man who leaves prison and tries to get his life back on track.
“Realness is about what it’s really like on the streets,” she says. “When you leave prison and you go back to your normal life, that’s when the realness dawns on you.”
Jay’s is a journey that reflects the experiences of many of the cast, which is partly composed of care-leavers and ex-offenders performing alongside professional actors.
Co-created by The Big House Theatre Company and Big Broad Productions, the idea was born many years ago when director Maggie Norris was working in prisons and pupil referral units.
Faced with the shocking statistic that 40 per cent of young people in prison have been in care, Norris set up The Big House in 2013 to offer an alternative future for young care leavers.
“The problem with people coming out of prison is that they go back to their old patch. People don’t realise how hard it is to stay on the straight and narrow,” she says.
Offering a course of life skills training, drama workshops and the opportunity to devise and perform a new piece of theatre, the programme is an invaluable stepping-stone for young people making the transition into an independent adult life.
Directing A Christmas Carol in Wormwood Scrubs some years ago, Norris was approached by Jason, a young man eager to be in her production. It wasn’t until he reminded her that she realised this was the same young man who was once her neighbour.
Through The Big House Norris was able to intervene at a critical moment in Jason’s life and he is now delivering talks about the reality of life in prison to young people at risk of offending.
Inspired by the experiences of the participants on The Big House theatre training programme, recent productions have garnered exceptional reviews from local and national press as well as industry professionals.
More importantly, Norris argues that the programme she leads has a profound effect on the lives of the participants.
“It is not about training actors, it’s about building confidence and self esteem,” she says.
“But we still uncover some massive talent who really deserve to be in the profession, and Veronique is one of them.”
Flyer for Baby/Lon, now showing at Hackney Downs Studios
Hackney Downs Studios announces a season of new drama. A triptych of hard-hitting, daring and evocative theatre.
Season One presents theatrical work on an epic scale
The season promises three promenade productions of exceptional quality and provocative content, each exploring the vulnerability of the human condition. The season takes its audience on a journey, a life-cycle of pregnancy, birth, displacement and death, concluding with a tale of astonishing rebirth and renewal.
Hackney Downs Studios is working with The Big House (theatre company in residence), Renato Rocha for LIFT festival and Living Structures, all innovative theatre companies who believe that theatre and art can transform lives.
BABY/LON
Apr 14th – May 3rd Written by Andy Day Directed By Maggie Norris
Press Night and Season One Launch Thurs 17 April, for tickets email lou@creativenetworkpartners.com
Dear Daughter, If you never meet me…I want you to know that my first thoughts of you were full of hope. As you grew inside me, I knew nothing about you, and I was still so deeply in love with you that I could hardly think.
Inspired by the real-life stories and experiences of a care-leaving cast, The Big House return with their second show exploring the harsh realities of having a child taken into care.
Directed By Renato Rocha
Press Night Wed 11th June, for tickets email lou@creativenetworkpartners.com
Inspired by the ‘beautiful game’, Rocha and an international team of young artists use spoken word, sharp choreography and stunning visuals to explore experiences of homelessness in London and across the world in a production that will make you see your home, family and friends in surprising new ways.
Created in partnership with Street Child World Cup and part of the 20th LIFT festival.
Jul 5th – 26th
An homage to Herman Melville’s Moby Dick Created by Living Structures
Press Night Wed 16th July, for tickets email lou@creativenetworkpartners.com
A stunning reimagining of Captain Ahab’s relentless pursuit of the great white whale, Leviathan is imbued with the monochrome colours, geometric shapes and functionality of Russian Constructivism. Pioneers of immersive theatre – Living Structures – take its audience through an adventurous journey of stunning landscapes, choruses of singers, giant objects, sailor aerialists and hauntingly beautiful songs that fill you with wonder and break your heart.
The Big House brings another gut wrenching production to Hackney Downs Studios with Baby/Lon, based on the lives of the young cast who have all recently left care.
In the Big House’s favoured promenade delivery, the visceral story is played out in an emotional dance which tears at your senses, while a barrage of visual and audio projection create an unsettling backdrop.
The show expertly tackles a myriad of issues affecting some children brought up by the government without their families, spanning from gang affiliation and teenage sex to mental health and homelessness.
In a world of entwined tragedies where almost everyone seems stuck in a hopeless cycle, the main character, Madeline, feels abandoned in life and paranoia is enveloping her.
Constant analysis and labels assigned by social workers and mental health professionals ricochet through her dreams and enhance her self-hate in an echoing cacophony of judgement.
And with a lack of role models and a deep seated mistrust of social services, danger is her destination.
Floating between groups with her desperate need for love translating into promiscuity, she claws for attention from empty connections and is left pregnant.
With a desire to protect her baby conflicting with past failings and parallels of rejection, Madeline isolates herself more and more.
And although some of the strongest characters eventually succumb to their assumed predestinations, Madeline’s one true friend, the enduring voice of reason, Estelle, offers an alternative ending.
The tense, violent finale at the rear of the theatre opens into the real world, heightening the fact that these heart breaking situations have actually happened to the actors and this is not just about entertainment.
Echoing the Big House’s success in helping the most marginalised young people, one actress, Zoe Finlay, 18, says: “This is my first big showcase performance and it has been a life changing experience. There are pieces in the show which are close to home and some nights I’ve just sat behind the stage and cried. But it is a good way to deal with things – now we have a voice and people are listening.”
Baby/Lon is at Hackney Downs Studios, 17 Amhurst Road, E8 2BT until 3 May.
