An important and ultimately uplifting tribute to the power of art in the community Rating
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Celebrating 20 years of SPID Theatre Company, founder and Artistic Director Helena Thompson performs the final version of her story in Artivist’s Handbook: An Interactive Play. This work, shaped by crisis, has evolved over the last seven years, with ET following it across earlier incarnations. It is a tale of advocacy for housing justice; of a charity working with and for a community that has experienced the most unimaginable challenges in its home. It tells of authorities attempting to divide and conquer, of fire and floods, and of the human cost of negligence.
Embedded within Thompson’s work, and given presence on the stage tonight, are the voices of local residents who have seen the story of Kensal House – at the heart of which the theatre sits – come full circle, this year finally meeting the standards imagined of it when built in 1937.
We’re led in through an installation charting the history of the Grade II listed building. Kensal House was originally designed as a model property for social housing, but was allowed to decline across decades until it became riddled with damp, mould and leaks – barely fit for human habitation. Yet landlords the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea failed to upkeep it, dodging their responsibilities just as they did with its sister building Grenfell Tower, which led to disaster and human tragedy. SPID finally took them to court to force them to meet their responsibilities. On display here cardboard structures represent estate buildings, which the youth theatre members have decorated, marking past events through letters and images, and giving them ownership of their history. At listening stations, the voices and opinions of residents are documented, given consequence in audio interviews.
With the audience seated intimately around, Thompson relates her story, supported by video and sound. The piece documents a long, hard struggle, and Thompson is deeply passionate as she engages with the audience, telling of her own journey but also paying tribute to and acknowledging the stakeholders involved with the work. She describes this as a listening project, stressing how Grenfell demonstrates what happen when people’s concerns aren’t heard and acted upon, when people in social housing are treated as stereotypes and dispensable.
At times the performance stumbles a little as voiceovers mismatch delivery, but that’s secondary, as the greater value of this work is in the process that has led us here. The story of fundraising millions to redevelop a space that brings value to a vulnerable community is inspiring. We learn how anger has been reimagined as strength to combat negativity. And as Thompson asks the audience to participate, putting poetry in their mouths or sharing ideas, this is almost a church meeting, using ritual performance to bind and unite those present, chanting the mantra of SPID that embraces integrity, empathy, endurance, humility. It’s deeply moving, particularly when residents speak of the support and validity local people have been offered when no-one else has listened to what they need in order to heal.
However, tonight is a birthday party and Helena leads a joyful celebration of unity and success. The council have been forced to meet their legal requirements and the building has been brought up to standard. We’re in this beautifully renovated theatre, surrounded by art from local people whose homes are now secured, and for whom empathy, collaboration and artistic expression have allowed a means to articulate and cope with distress. Now they can look together to a brighter future through new windows, strong in the knowledge they have each other in a shared, safe home. That’s a story of hope really worth telling.
Written by Helena Thompson
Remount Director: Rachel Grimwald
Assistant Director: Romario Williams
Remount Design by Aquiong Zhang
Assistant Remount Design by Mia Debenhams
Technical Director: Ben Esterson
Film Editor: Kai Gama
Audio Recordings: Sylvia Akajioyi, Sean Cleary, Safiye Dizdar, Ivor Flint, Adnan Hemani, Naomi Israel, Taevian Ollivierre, Sophia Shreemarti Stewart, Sanna El-Wakili, Michelle Widdrington
Artivist’s Handbook: An Immersive Play runs at SPID Theatre until Saturday 13 December.
