....a place of vulnerability and discovery

A few weeks back, Warren took me to The Albany (a creative space in Deptford, East London.) We witnessed an incredible, quite unsettling piece of forum theatre called Glasshouse.

It was written by Kate Tempest who is best known for her spoken word. It was based around three members of a family, mother, daughter and step dad.

The point of the play is to highlight how homelessness comes about - how people end up on the streets and what can be done differently to prevent it.

Enter the 'Forum' aspect.... we saw the same story acted from each perspective. Then asked to turn to our neighbour, and discuss who we believed to be the most vulnerable. The audience concluded it was the daughter. We then had the chance to stop the play when we thought things were going wrong - get up on stage and try to play it differently.

It was incredibly interesting.

What people noted was that with more rational communication and honesty between the family, situations could be transformed and trust was built.

It was performed by a company called Cardboard Citizens, who are made up of people who have been homeless and know what it feels like. Usually they tour around hostels, reaching homeless people directly.

You can read there tour blog hear.