Cardboard Citizens are
a travelling theatre troupe, set up in the early 1990’s as a proactive response
to homelessness in London. The troupe are primarily made up of people with
experience of homelessness and that focuses the content of their work.
The shows they run tours both in schools and hostels, and also in mainstream
theatres. Despite serving social aims this troupe does not run on pity, but on
excellence and professionalism.
Glasshouse - Copyright: Cardboard Citizens
Cardboard Citizens are pioneers of forum theatre. A style
Shakespeare would have recognised. During Glasshouse
the players present one story through the eyes of three different
characters and it doesn’t end well. The audience’s job is first to watch and
listen and then to suggest how different decisions and actions could change the
outcome for the character of their choice. Your words of course are not enough;
to change it for the character you literally step into their shoes, taking
their place and experiencing what the scenario feels like from their perspective. Some of the
tactics work, and some of them just seem to make it worse.
This forum-style was really effective for me as an audience
member. It made me reflect on the way that I respond to conflict and to
difficult life circumstances more generally. It was a style I remembered from
Sex-Ed and Crime-Stoppers at school; but that doesn’t stop it being an
effective way to challenge people and make them think. More than that, it didn’t
feel like school because these guys were professionals, they were highly
polished entertainers as well as educators. And the work of Cardboard Citizens
clearly goes beyond teaching drama, to getting people back on their feet in
really practical, humanising ways!
Glasshouse is touring, its in Southend tomorrow and then in
East London, at Richmix on Saturday, as well as numerous venues in between. See
it if you get the chance!
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