The Hidden Gem - Doing a show at The Network Theatre under the Arches at Waterloo; Blog 18

Morning All

The Network Theatre, Lower St Waterloo Station

We have been in discussion this week about staging another performance in March at the Network Theatre under the arches at Waterloo. Its a perfect venue for our play Mullered by Clifford Oliver, the latest play to be commissioned by British Transport Police.

Many of London’s fringe venues could be described as hidden, but the word is particularly fitting for the Network Theatre, which is situated on an industrial approach road underneath the arches at Waterloo station that doesn’t appear on many maps!

As you make your way to the Network for the first time, you’ll be struck by the feeling that you’ve taken a wrong turn or at least you’re in a place you shouldn’t be. Lorries manoeuvre around you as they drop produce off in the loading bays that the venue counts as neighbours.An odd location, granted, but one which is not without its own curious charm. 

The front door looks nothing like a theatre, but once you walk in its a  small atmospheric venue with a slight musty smell and a faint background ramble of trains in and out of Waterloo. Once inside, it boasts a large stage for a fringe venue along with flexible seating that gives the space a real adaptability for hosting different types of performance.The Theatre has its own amateur company but also stages a range of professional productions. Its a great space to work in and we packed in an audience of 100 the last time we performed

Following a double bill performance of Pact and Boy X we did there recently I got this message from Peter Hulton ( Director of Documentation and Archive at the Intercultural Performance Practice Centre, Exeter University) Peter has directed this message to the Royal Society of Arts and his perspective on Arc's work is interesting. So here it is:

"I am a life long fellow down in the south west, in Exeter actually - but the other day I was up in London and present at a most extraordinary event. It was held in a little known theatre started in 1939 by the amateur dramatic group of Southern Railways. It is now called the Network theatre and nestles under the arches of Waterloo Station. 

I myself have been involved in theatre for all my life but have never come across this space. Anyway, in this little theatre gathered officers of the British Transport Police, from the Metropolitan police, Home Office officials consigned to fighting knife crime, members of the black community in London, community leaders and one or two people like myself. Not a large audience I would say - about 80- the theatre is small. We had all gathered to watch a performance of two short plays performed by Arc Theatre - whose artistic director is a fellow at the RSA. The performance had been commissioned by the British Transport Police - the first commissioning venture of this kind ever undertaken by this particular police force I believe - and it is due to tour into schools both in London and nationally, as well as being taken up by police conference, probation service venues etc. 

It has seemed to me to be at its centre exactly what the RSA is about - an art form that has intervened in the attempts by both Government and Government agencies AND local communities to knit meaningful relationships for dialogue to occur. The play was a provocation, an embodied presence of issues of knife crime and what is called "snitching," when members of the public come forward to give evidence to the police. 

Not only were the performances - by young black and white people (professional actors) from the very communities that are experiencing such issues - moving and intelligent, but the ensuing debate between police officers, audience members (some of whom had had family members killed from knife crime), social workers and others was quite remarkable in its ability to speak from actual experience and its attempt to find a language which others would understand. 

Here we had, as I said, an art form that was a hard pearl of communicated experience which then prompted dialogue, a move towards understanding in an absolutely crucial social area - deaths from knife crime in London is a remarkable statistic- that went well beyond the value of the actual event, considerable though that was. A short documentary film of the performances and the thinking around them had also been made and this I am sure will travel far and wide - so, all in all, a real instance of value added, which is also what the RSA must be about, not simply repeating what is already being done."

Thanks to Peter for this thoughtful commentary. He has articulated here precisely the ambition of this project, namely to create a neutral and safe space in which to explore through a theatre narrative, the complex prejudices, stereotypes and mythologies that sit around issues of communication between the police, justice system, the community and young people specifically. 

There is a fundamental leveling that happens naturally in the presence of good storytelling, the shared experience that enables an authentic conversation to ensue, provoked by an attempt to come to terms with the often conflicting imperatives. One of our actors, Jordan Barrett, who plays the lead in both plays, often says that the relationship between young people and the police is much like any relationship, where conflict occurs when listening, empathy breakdown, in which the desire to "be right" outstrips the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes and seek understanding and possibly reconciliation. 

Good theatre has a way of reaching into the mind and soul and finding the commonality of human experience. It brings us together in a way that allows us space to understand and debate core values with each other. We may leave still disagreeing, but it allows us to so without the hear of violence and aggression. I believe there is a magic half hour following a performance when we are all transported somewhere else and which allows us to be open enough to ponder alternative perspectives, a prism of experiences.

Here is the link to the mini-doc about the project. Be great to hear what you think.
http://youtu.be/3nrl3wMp6e4

Very excited this morning as I am off to see Curious at Half Moon Theatre with the fabulous Marleen Vermeulen and to have a cuppa with my friend Chris Elwell, the Artistic Director. Looking forward to swapping notes!