Lung Theatre ‘E15’ Battersea March: Thursday sixteenth March 2017 was a quite uncommon day for me in that quite than photographing a protest I used to be being a part of a theatrical efficiency, although not in a theatre however on the busy night rush hour streets of Battersea.
However like most of the others there, I used to be taking part in myself as a photographer of protests, and taking footage as I’d if this had been an actual protest.
This efficiency was to announce that Lung Theatre, a small theatrical group, have been bringing their Edinburgh pageant award-winning efficiency ‘E15’ to Battersea Arts Centre, and so they have been doing so with the assistance of most of the housing protesters, notably from the Stratford-based Focus E15 marketing campaign, on which their ‘verbatim theatre’ efficiency was based mostly.
An attention-grabbing article, Documentary & Verbatim Theatre by Tom Cantrell of the College of York offers a transparent definition, “Verbatim theatre is a type of documentary theatre which is predicated on the spoken phrases of actual individuals. Strictly, verbatim theatre-makers use actual individuals’s phrases solely, and take this testimony from recorded interviews.”
The “protest” started within the quite dim mild of the road exterior Clapham Junction’s busiest entrance, and it was onerous for me to tell apart the actors from the housing protesters by their speech and actions, although quite simpler in that they have been the one faces I didn’t recognise, having met and photographed the activists so usually at earlier occasions. However the group definitely placed on a convincing efficiency as they handed out leaflets and fliers, each concerning the Focus E15 marketing campaign and their forthcoming performances on the Battersea Arts Centre.
Focus E15 started when a gaggle of younger moms housed within the Focus E15 hostel in Stratford have been advised that Newham council have been going to evict them and they might be dispersed not simply within the borough however to rented lodging throughout the nation in far-off locations the place that they had no pals, no household and away from any jobs, faculties, acquainted providers and help.
Newham had adopted a coverage which amounted to social cleaning, eradicating individuals from its space who, because the then Mayor put it, couldn’t afford to stay there. Relatively than settle for this they got here collectively to combat the council, and impressed others throughout the nation to combat for ‘Social Housing NOT Social Cleaning’.
And Focus E15 received their combat however didn’t cease there, persevering with the combat for others within the space confronted with homelessness and eviction, demanding the council deliver empty council housing again into use in a marketing campaign for ‘Housing For All’. They’re nonetheless out on Stratford Broadway with a road stall each Saturday, nonetheless forcing the council to withstand its obligations regardless of appreciable harassment (and extra not too long ago a change of Mayor.)
In addition to a few of the main activists from Focus E15 on the eevent have been additionally different campaigners together with some from Sweets Method in north London and Lewisham Individuals Earlier than Revenue and others combating the demolition of council housing by London’s primarily Labour managed councils, more and more in league with property brokers and property builders scrambling for extreme earnings from sky-high London market costs. They usually had introduced a few of their banners with them for the occasion.
From Clapham Junction the “protesters” marched up Lavender Hill to the Battersea Arts Centre, the place they occupied the lobby for just a few last minutes of protest in what had been a reasonably convincing occasion. And whereas actors needed to go on stage and provides their efficiency, the activists may sit down within the theatre and watch.
I didn’t be a part of them, as I knew I needed to come again to view it every week later after which be part of a panel dialogue Artwork & Unintended Activism, every week later. It was a formidable efficiency and gave an actual impression of a few of the extra dramatic points of the true protests I had coated and made clear the political points of the housing disaster and why activism was obligatory. However generally it did appear unusual to listen to phrases I remembered properly popping out of a special particular person.
I couldn’t actually take pleasure in it as a lot as I’d have appreciated as I used to be very nervous, significantly daunted at having to look afterwards ‘on stage’ to reply questions with fellow panelists Jeremy Hardy, journalist Daybreak Foster and theatre legend Max Stafford Clark. However within the occasion it went properly (my sternest critic says) and I quite loved it and the session within the bar that adopted.
Extra at Lung Theatre ‘E15’ march to BAC.
Tags: Artwork & Unintended Activism, BAC, banners, Battersea, Battersea Arts Centre, Clapham Junction, council estates, demolition, E15, erbatim theatre, eviction, Focus E15, housing disaster, Housing for All, housing protesters, Jeremy Hardy, journalist Daybreak Foster, Labour councils, Lewisham, London, Lung Theatre, march, Max Stafford Clark., Newham Council, panel dialogue, Individuals Earlier than Revenue, peter Marshall, property builders, protest, redvelopment, social cleaning, social housing, Sweets Method, tratford Broadway
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