Every morn and every night,
Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night. William Blake, Songs of Innocence
Somewhere in London there is a theatre company working its very own magic upon art and life and the very fine line that separates them. Cardboard Citizens is the only professional homeless people’s theatre company in the UK. Artistic Director, Adrian Jackson founded Cardboard Citizens in 1991. Since then Adrian Jackson has directed over 20 productions for the company, devising and writing many of them. Jackson has also directed the company’s many large-scale site-specific productions, including Pericles, which was co-produced with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in 2003 and most recently, Visible by award winning playwright, Sarah Woods. Visible begins its National Tour in Manchester on March 16, 2006.
The work of Cardboard Citizens centres around facilitating workshops, creating plays and theatre events based on Augusto Boal’s pioneering theatre practice of Forum Theatre. Using Forum Theatre, the company seeks to create theatre that is resonant with the issues encountered by homeless people. Forum Theatre is an integral part of Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed; a theatre form that arose in part from Boal’s own experiences as a political prisoner and asylum seeker. The Theatre of the Oppressed seeks to use the power of theatre as a force for change. According to Boal, this possibility of change is available to everyone, and particularly to those in oppressed situations.
More recently Cardboard Citizens has widened its approach to provide a range of performance-based cultural actions with, for and by homeless and ex-homeless people. Cardboard Citizens also works with the other perennially homeless citizens of the world; asylum seekers and refugees. Due to the long-term and wide-ranging success of Cardboard Citizens’s work, two similar programmes are now being implemented in Manchester and Liverpool.
Cardboard Citizens is committed to working with the performing arts to give homeless people a voice. This in turn enables homeless people to recognise and reach their potential. The invaluable work of the company assists people to rebuild and redefine their identity. The programmes build skills and confidence, and support individuals to raise and face the issues necessary for them to make positive changes in their lives. As a professional theatre company Cardboard Citizens works towards the highest performance/production values possible whilst providing on-going support for homeless people. In this way the work of CC has a lasting and meaningful impact on the lives of its participants.
Company performer and Workshop Leader, Terry O’Leary came across Cardboard Citizens’ work whilst living in a hostel. Other homeless people meet the work through day centres, and Crisis Skylight, a centre in East London that provides free practical and creative workshops for homeless and former-homeless people. Mentorship training is also offered to participants so that they can feel confident to advise people who approach them after shows and workshops.
Cardboard Citizens Key Statistics:
In 2003 a co-produced version of Pericles was directed and adapted by Jackson in association with the RSC. Performed in a Southwark warehouse, Shakespeare’s rich and harrowing story was brought to life with uncanny relevance. The cast was drawn from both the RSC and Cardboard Citizens companies. Cardboard Citizens actor, Dele Adagunodo, who found himself homeless when he returned to Britain from Nigeria, got involved with the company while living in a South London hostel. Adagunodo now performs regularly with the company. Speaking of the Pericles experience, Adagunodo said, “The themes and issues in the play were very close to my heart…I was going through a difficult time, but working with Cardboard Citizens gave me a lot of confidence.”
As part of the research and devising process, Pericles was test-run as a storytelling project of an hour’s duration. Five to twelve actors played to refugee groups around the capital. Afghans one night, Iraqis another, Kurds, Latin Americans, Africans, Albanians, Bosnians, as well as general audiences of homeless people and asylum-seekers. Artistic Director, Adrian Jackson said, “I was struck by the themes in Pericles – of exile, loss and reunion; themes that are all too familiar to asylum seekers.” Jackson points out that, like homeless people, “Asylum seekers are often overlooked and disdained… Refugees and homeless people have been pathologised,” says Jackson. “A problem to be solved, rather than real people with real experiences. There’s lots of talking about them, but people’s own words are still not heard enough.”
With Pericles the theatrical event became a meeting ground; a site for conversation, witnessing, and exchange. These were far from being ordinary nights in a plush theatre, followed by cocktails in a swank bar. The actors told the story of Pericles and after the performance, the audience was invited to respond to what they thought about the themes of loss and reunion. Audiences responded with their own stories back to the actors; by turns amazing, shocking, unbelievable, painful and normal. “We hadn’t expected people to blurt out stories to complete strangers, but they did. We heard some remarkable and moving stories. They were all mini-epics…Some of these stories of loss, persecution and extraordinary survival against the odds feature in the play, but some were just too painful to tell. There’s only so much torture people want to hear about, ” says Jackson, who adapted the play.
“But we also got some happy stories, stories about reunions; members of one Iraqi family were reunited with a son they thought was dead, after 14 years.”
Here follows an interview with Adrian Jackson, the Artistic Director and Terry O’Leary, Performer and Workshop Leader of Cardboard Citizens for Artshub UK.
What was the first theatre work you ever saw ?
Adrian: Probably Toad of Toad Hall at the old Unicorn, circa 1963.
Terry: Panto as a kid.
When did you realise that you wanted to be a part of the theatre world?
Adrian: I am still not sure if I do want to be part of that world and I don’t know if I am.
Terry: When I worked briefly with Spin/stir theatre company in Brixton… (in the) early 90’s.
What have been some of the highlights of your career for you?
Adrian: Starting to work with Augusto Boal in the early 90s, Mincemeat at the Jam Factory in 2000, writing The Man With Size 12 Feet (2002), directing Pericles co-produced with RSC in 2003, and Woyzeck the same year. Last year Sarah Woods VISIBLE at RSC New Work festival and John Berger’s KING at a squatted theatre in North London.
Terry: The Contact Theatre Manchester: The audience was a 50/50 split of homeless and non-homeless audience having an almighty ding-dong over the issue (of) street homeless having dogs! This was all sparked by our Forum panto Dick and his dog.
Any hostile audience who hates theatre and then is spellbound by what they see. Ha !! Got ya !!
Who are the actors, directors & companies who inspire you?
Adrian: Pina Bausch, Peter Brook, Wooster Group, Augusto Boal.
Terry: I’m not great for this one as there is a lot of shite out there!
Maggie Smith Women in a Van, Steppenwolf Company’s
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Sarah Keane, Adrian Jackson, Trestle Theatre, Red Ladder, Boal’s Mother Courage …Sure there is more.
What place do you think theatre holds in our culture/society ?
Adrian: Theatre is distinctly marginal for most people, a pastime of little import, a diversion for a privileged few. Everyday life and world events are far more theatrical than the theatre most of the time. But occasionally theatre can reflect us back to ourselves like no other medium; the current vogue for verbatim theatre shows that we need to hear things again, or differently, to notice them. I still believe in the theatrical event and its power to make us question ourselves and our society.
Terry: Theatre should be at the heart of our culture, stimulating ideas, thought, debate. However, it isn’t.
What, led you to begin Cardboard Citizens?
Adrian: I wanted to try out Boal’s theories in practice…we made a long list of oppressed groups and we ended up with homeless people. At the time we started in 1991 there were cardboard cities in Lincoln’s Inn Fields and the Bullring. Government ministers regularly spoke of climbing over homeless people on the way out of the opera. They were a sort of uncomfortable witness to the inequalities in our society after 14 years of Thatcher-ism. It seemed a good place to start work. It still is.
Terry: Attending a drama workshop within my hostel, at Mare Street Hackney.
What were some of the challenges of attempting to find a way of working that could become the beginnings of a new culture for homeless people?
Adrian: First we had to get to know what we were talking about – and the interactivity of Forum Theatre forced us to listen to people. Then there were all the preconceptions we had to overcome – that the only art homeless people could engage with was therapeutic pot making, or that this constituency had nothing to say or was itself incapable of engaging with theatre. And of course all the economic and practical barriers which we had to dismantle to enable people to participate in our work. It has been a long journey, but now there is more than one theatre company working in this area, and a number working with Forum theatre.
Terry: Lack of confidence / knowledge. Negative views of theatre; “What’s it got to do with me?” Living in chaotic surroundings.
What is it about the way you & your staff direct/ teach that sets the company apart?
Adrian: The company employs homeless and ex-homeless people whenever possible. We are not a social service, we are a theatre company – but we still have time for people, and we have a basic sympathy with people in difficult situations. We have no agenda to peddle, no desire to ‘societise’ people, so we are not identified with any authority. At its best, the process is always about exchange, learn/teach, teach/learn. And we have very high expectations of people as performers and creators.
Terry: The belief that we can all tell stories. That our opinion’s matter. That the company belongs to all of us. That includes those who attend regular workshops. Maintaining the high quality of work that is expected and the belief that we can reach that standard.
What has given you a great sense of meaning in your work?
Adrian: I am happy that our work means something to people, that it does actually effect change.
Terry: The power it gives back to our homeless (and the audience) to change their situation. People being moved by seeing moments of their own lives up there on stage.
What challenges face emerging actors & directors in the company?
Adrian: Funding, funding, funding. We receive very little core funding from ACE, and yet we want to make as much theatre as we can. Actors and directors need experience in order to develop (after several years working with us); one of our actors has just completed 18 months with the RSC, which is just great.
Terry: Lack of confidence, feeling that workshop experience isn’t the same as going to drama school. Although, this is one of our strengths.
How does the company and associated organisations contribute to these issues / dilemmas?
Adrian: The company has a long history of partnerships, with social organisations and arts organisations; and we have always worked hard to fund-raise. But life is always difficult. We are nearing the end of our first year on the Arts Council’s Recovery Programme.
Terry: Establishing new life pattens. Combating low self-esteem. Poverty. We offer creative activities via our Skylight programme. Sign post them to organisations that can support them if there are drink/drug or mental health issues. Mentor support. Support to find courses/work. Paid acting work.
What is your vision for Cardboard Citizens in the next five years?
Adrian: We will go from strength to strength. Our national touring theatre work such as VISIBLE will be sustained by more co-productions, and pieces such as our Timon of Athens (RSC Complete Works Festival, October 2006). We will be touring on the international festival scene. We will have our own London building, offering workshops for homeless people in all the performing arts. Our frontline Engagement Programme in hostels will run all the year round. We will be happy and fulfilled. ( Gleeful cheek and hope.)
Terry: I would like to see more collaborative projects with other theatres. Employ more actors from our workshops. Have our own building.
Well the wish list is big… but then so is the art at the heart of this company’s practice. This is a company that not only sings for every cent of its supper; its work can also truly turn people’s lives around. A more just world, and the sense of a wider possibility in every person’s life is what Cardboard Citizens seems to be about. So, bring on the building and the funding so that this extraordinary, radical and inspired (art meets life) project can continue to grow.
Cardboard Citizens Theatre presents:
VISIBLE BY SARAH WOODS Touring March 2006.
VISIBLE is an unexpected and provocative, darkly comic drama exploring how we guard our wealth and our “right” to happiness. Striving so hard in the acquisition of these “goals”, do we sometimes lose our sense of perspective? In their mock Georgian house on an exclusive estate, Rob and Hattie are preparing Sunday lunch for friends and neighbours. But it’s not going to plan! When life is as sweet as treacle, sugar and honey, why can’t Sunday lunch be… Perfect? When you’ve got everything you thought you wanted, how come you still want more?
VISIBLE follows in the tradition of Cardboard Citizens theatre, simply… The edgiest work on the edge.
The reality of exclusion explodes into the cozy, comfy world of the aspiring middle class in their exclusive estates. Sharp, inventive, and thoroughly original, this biting black comedy packs a powerful punch.
VISIBLE
A new play commissioned by Cardboard Citizens & RSC. Directed by Adrian Jackson. Designed by Rajha Shakiry. Lighting Design Emma Chapman. Composer Anders Sodergron. For information regarding the VISIBLE season please contact: Helen Snell on tel 020 7287 6889 or email: info@helensnell.com.
Touring Schedule March 2006
Thur 16 – Sat 18 March 8pm
Contact Theatre MANCHESTER
Oxford Road, Manchester M15 6JA
Box Office 0161 274 0600
Full £10 & Concession £6
www.contact-theatre.org
Thur 23 & Fri 24 March 8pm
Trinity Theatre TUNBRIDGE WELLS
Church Road, Tunbridge Wells TN1 1JP
Ticket Office: 01892 678 678
Full £14.50 & Concs £12.50
www.trinitytheatre.net
Mon 27 & Tue 28 March 8pm
Lighthouse Studio POOLE
21 Kingland Road, Poole, Dorset, BH15 1UG
Box Office 08700 668 701
Full £9 & Concs available
www.lighthousepoole.co.uk
Wed 29 & Thur 30 March 8pm
Gardner Arts BRIGHTON
Univ., of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9RA
Box Office 01273 685861
Full £12.50 & Concs £10
www.gardnerarts.co.uk
Fri 31 March & Sat 1April 8pm
Ustinov Studio BATH
Sawclose, Bath BA1 1ET
Box Office 01225 448844
Full £10 & Concs £7
www.theatreroyal.org.uk
Tue 4 – Sat 8 April 7.45pm
Everyman LIVERPOOL
Hope Street, Liverpool L1 9BH
Box Office 0151 709 4776
£7 – £12.50 & Concs avail
www.everymanplayhouse.com
Tue 25 April – Sat 6 May
Soho Theatre LONDON
21 Dean Street, London W1D 3NE
Box Office 0870 429 6883
Eves 7.30pm, Sat mats 3pm
£7.50 – £20 & Concs available
www.sohotheatre.com
For more information go to:
