Carving spaces to discuss the ugly truths of Britain.
Over 3 million people use food banks across the country today. How have we got here?
This is the question that occupies the mind of performer and theatre-maker Sam Rees in the new piece, “The Food Bank Show”. Presented by award-winning company Carmen Collective, who recently staged “Lessons on Revolution” to wide acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, this show took the Camden People’s Theatre stage by storm for a few nights only as part of The State We’re In 2024 Festival.
As the audience enter the space they are offered slices of free pizza and made to guess how many pieces of macaroni are in a glass jar. Immediately sucking us into the space that Rees is attempting to create, we are well prepared to be led into the nitty-gritty of state-wide food poverty, with ironically a full belly but still attentive minds. By positioning an audience’s awareness, Rees hopes to cut through the history, the policies and the numbers to carve out the human shapes that we so easily dismiss when faced with an issue as uncomfortable and deplorable as this.
This is documentary theatre on its feet. Rees has conducted interviews with leading politicians on the subject and the people who use food banks, bringing these to life with recorded Zoom audio and actor recreations. The dialogue he is creating is current and right up to date, even commenting on the fact that the snap election earlier in the year diverted the course of the show itself. An aim of Rees’ is to break down the barriers between the confines in which theatre takes place and the real world outside: this is achieved in droves.
Accompanying Rees on stage is Mo Pittaway, a live illustrator. Crafting hand-drawn images of people and places which are then projected onto the back of the stage, their inclusion guides the piece, elevating “The Food Bank Show” beyond mere lecture theatre.
The show’s goal is to raise awareness upon the political decisions that have led to the explosion of food bank usage across the country since austerity, but importantly this is not its main aim. Theatre has the power to create spaces in which we can talk, which is what is sadly, and dangerously, missing from our society today. “The Food Bank Show” achieves what it sets out to do: not only educate, but create spaces for radical dialogue to take place.