Arc Theatre On The Railways: A commission from British Transport Police and Network Rail: Blog 11

Good Morning!

I really enjoy the stretch of my work and job! Yesterday Nita and I went to a meeting with Teresa Bedziejewski, Tom Naugton from British Transport Police and Ria Guyatt from Network Rail. We met in a quirky little Camden coffee shop just down the road from BTP HQ. This comfortable cafe with great coffee  offers a back up meeting place for BTP officers and guests. The owner knows them all really well, and we were warmly welcomed!

We have been working closely in partnership with BTP since 2009 when we stumbled across each other at a performance of our play Boy X  (see a short trailer here)  http://youtu.be/iuOuIl5jKJE. 

DCS Martin Fry was the first to see the potential of working with us to bring more performances of Boy X to schools across the UK. And so began a great working partnership. BTP have sponsored performances and commissioned three new plays since then, Pact, Girl E and now Mullered by Clifford Oliver and have committed significant funding to do so. Thanks to this we have been able to showcase and tour the work to young people nationally and to encourage other partners to get involved in a number of ways, from funding to leading workshops together.

The shows have travelled across the UK from London to Cardiff, Liverpool, Manchester, Swansea, Birmingham and other cities.  

Working with theatre was a brand new departure for BTP and has been championed from the top of the organisation by ACC Alan Pacey. 

You may ask why on earth would the BTP want to engage with theatre?

We have a considerable history of workig with many Police Forces in the UK over the past 15 years, making work about a range of tough themes and prizing our way into the most extraordinary of non-theatre spaces. Most recently performances on the concourse and underneath the arches at Waterloo Station,  to posh hotels, Google's HQ, Shell UK HQ, Prisons, Schools and many others.

I love the serendipity of it all, the accident of meeting. BTP just seem to get and love the idea that stories told through compelling dramas break through the barriers they necessarily experience daily in the nature of their work. Kids turn off to lectures about the dangers of getting involved with gangs, and often struggle to understand that carrying a knife puts them more at risk of it being used against them. 

Some of you may know that we have worked for many years with Neville Lawrence, the father of Stephen Lawrence, two of whose killers were finally brought to justice this time last year. Spending a great deal of time with Neville since 2000, opened up to us the dreadful space in which a parent lives when their child has been murdered, and the oppressive life they are forced to live, not least when they are subject to bodged justice and discrimination on the basis of race. It was an exhausting fight for justice for the Lawrence family, and it is not over for them.

In this time of deep public sector cuts, cutting off the lifeblood of much work like ours, the BTP are a little more protected. They do receive money from the public purse but are largely funded by the Rail Network operators to deliver policing on the railways nationally.

The partnership has been marked by a genuine equality from the beginning. Its been a huge learning curve for all of us. On the surface plays set on trains and stations about violence and anti-social behaviour may seem far removed from the richness of Hamlet or even a panto!  

However, scratch the surface a little more and underneath you find of course that the station and the train are simply other settings in which life plays out its many narratives. Relationships are not just played out in the privacy of the home, but in public places every day. It doesn't take much of a detective's nose to sniff out couples breaking up at airports, children leaving to travel from stations. Our lives play out in these spaces all the time. Indeed stations and airports are probably the most charged of places. Of course it may not seem like that,and it probably isn't for most people on a daily basis as they commute to work. But of course it could become so at any moment.

The tragic murder of Sofyen Belamouadden by 12 young people at Victoria Station in 2010 is one example of the extremes of violence that happen in the broad daylight in front of thousands of commuters.

And so when the BTP want to get into a conversation with young people about what this is and why, it behoves them to find a way of listening and opening up that dialogue in a safe space. We do that for and with them.

Its never about messages for us. We do not do propaganda and never would. That's what our commissioners understand about us.  What we do is tell authentic stories and through compelling characters, we open the possibility of  a space for a real conversation. That's it really. We cannot control the outcomes of those conversations and the learning that comes from them, but we can create a precious space where they can happen. The listening is almost always wonderful and the shared insights that young people in our audiences give to each other are in themselves the way the learning happens.

So in these tough times to have a partner like BTP on a shared journey is particularly special.

Last year they commissioned Mullered by Clifford Oliver and its an unusual take on the way people behave in public spaces around the railways. Olly chose to shine an historical light on this one and uses the story of Thomas Briggs, the first person to be murdered on the railway in 1864 by a man called Franz Muller who was eventually hanged for it. The story is fascinating and offers an unusual backdrop for a group of contemporary young people to play out their other story.

The show goes out across London in March and April and for the first time we are thrilled that thanks to their relationship with BTP  Network Rail has come on as a funding partner. They are hugely supportive and hands on in making the show available to schools in  East Anglia and Kent.

So the project plan is now fully in place and we will be auditioning in early February. 

Oh yes I should also mention that by coincidence the Amy Green's (Cinderella) Dad Paul works for BTP!

I'll let you know more updates.

No Director's suggested exercise today - except to say I highly recommend the Coffee House on Camden Road!