We sat down for an exclusive interview with SPID Theatre’s Helena Thompson about their upcoming show, Artivist’s Handbook.
Celebrating SPID Theatre’s 20th Anniversary this show runs until Saturday 13th December 2025, 7pm at their home, SPID theatre. Tickets here.
What inspired you to turn SPID’s story of activism into Artivist’s Handbook?
Artivists Handbook is the story of SPID (Social Progressive Interconnected Diverse). I founded SPID to make art that advocates housing justice twenty years ago. At the time, I was the age of the young people SPID works with now. I had been through the Buildings at Risk Register and discovered the neglected Kensal House Community Theatre. I fell in love with it immediately, and it became my life’s dream to restore it.
I was inspired to use this experience to tell the history of housing justice. The show offers much-needed hope and brings people together at a time when they often feel alone. It shares how we brought social change using petitions, press, legal action and performance.
How do you make activism and legal battles engaging for audiences?
I am constantly inspired by the estate residents we work with and by our charity’s own living history. It is their bravery and grace that bring the struggle to life. The words of residents displaced by Grenfell’s fires and Kensal’s floods ripple through the audio of Artivist’s Handbook.
Their own voices make the case more convincingly than any lawyer. The films we made with residents also dramatise our shared ordeal on the receiving end of landlord negligence in life and feature prominently within the multimedia production.
What do you want audiences to take away from SPID’s journey of resilience and restoration?
I want audiences to understand that our uplifting, educational and redemptive experience would not have been possible without the commitment and determination of Kensal House residents. They have been courageous in their commitment to ensuring the whole estate is brought up to standard.
The performance offers a powerful takeaway by sharing SPID’s tactics for securing social change and investment in estate communities. It gives audiences the chance to live history and experience collective action. With landlord negligence and homelessness on the rise, the production is an urgently needed testimony to the value of access and safety.
How do you balance art, activism, and entertainment in performance?
Authenticity and lived experience are key to SPID’s grassroots, DIY approach to high-quality community theatre on council estates. As a youth charity that uses theatre, film and radio to call for investment in social housing, SPID mixes verbatim testimonies with scripted dialogue to celebrate and champion estates’ history.
The multimedia mixture of film and radio keeps audiences on their toes. There is the chance to hear residents’ oral testimonies and view footage of the negligence experienced as part of the interactive exhibition that features within the show. The dramatised tour and group activities that frame the performance are an exciting opportunity to experience positive social change in action.
Has performing this piece changed how you view SPID’s 20-year journey?
Yes, performing this piece has allowed me to experience my memories of SPID’s 20-year journey as a feeling of joy. I believe in pleasure activism, the capacity for collective action to make us all feel better together. The show features a group meditation and collective shout for solidarity that inspires me as well as the participants.
Completing our £4m refurbishment after fighting for investment in social housing community spaces for so long was a great feeling that I get to experience afresh with each new performance. Every show is different because the audience and space are such characters within the story. It’s gratifying that, as a tie-in with the production, Methuen are launching the publication of an anthology of my most popular plays about social change.
What legacy do you hope Artivist’s Handbook leaves behind?
As the fight for housing justice continues, I want people to remember that nothing we do is ever achieved alone. At this dark time of reckoning, don’t forget the solace of supporting each other, win or lose– or that in our lived experience, justice always wins – it’s just a question of how long it takes.
The legacy we’re keen to share is the motivation to keep going. When SPID started, we were a collective of unpaid volunteers. Now we’re a team of 8 professionals with a turnover of more than £250,000 per year. Over time, the need for our work has increased as our achievements have grown by working together and not giving up.