People’s Theatre Big Community Play
Tottenham Theatre (now People’s Theatre) has performed a number of community plays. ‘Up on the High Road’ featured the dramatic telling of stories from people from Haringey also highlighting the local campaign against social cleansing by the Haringey Development Vehicle. ‘Up on the High Road’ was performed to a packed audience at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre and toured round other community venues. I like to think our play played a small part in the campaign’s eventual success!
Another play was ‘The Story of Walter Tull’ by Phil Vasili performed by young people from Bruce Grove Youth Centre. Again, we toured this show after its first performance at the Bernie Grant, taking the play and a workshop into primary schools.
Since then we have done a number of plays tackling issues important to the community. ‘If not now, when?’ about the Edmonton Incinerator, ‘Breathless’ a futuristic look at Traffic Pollution and ‘Bread and Roses’ based on the real story of the Edmonton Women’s Rent Strike in 1915 during the First World War. ‘Netanyahu on Trial in Tottenham’ was performed outdoors in Haringey and across London as a response to the genocide in Gaza. At present we are working on ‘War Factory’, a community play which explores how we might respond to the growing threat of militarisation and conscription whilst suffering ever stricter austerity.
We have started a popular Songs and Words of Resistance open mic event based in Kitab Evi on Tottenham High Road but also at other community venues. We hope these open mic songs and words events will help us to recruit people for the big play.
So it’s with great excitement that People’s Theatre begins its next big play as part of the Real Rebels of Haringey. At present, the play is at the creation stage but some aspects are certain. It will feature some of the hundreds of rebellions that have taken place in Haringey from the Peasants’ Revolt through to rebellions up to and including the present day. Haringey is no doubt a borough of Real Rebels so our working title is Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.
I hope to create an event which all participants feel is theirs. I want to use dance, singing, music, spoken word and stories as part of the performance. I want the play to be intergenerational, inclusive and available to everyone regardless of experience. We will need actors, singers, musicians, writers and dancers as well as people for backstage and publicity.