The Corner Shop
September 28, 2008
Foursight Theatre & Black Country Touring in association with English Heritage
The Corner Shop presents its audience with something a little different. Outside the confines of the traditional stage, its story is played out in an actual disused shopping centre in West Bromwich.
The authentic set and storyline, based on the actual experiences of shop owners in the Black Country, works well as different cultures, timelines and experiences are brought together by the humble Corner Shop.
During the performance you are taken on a journey though the ingenious set. There is the street outside the corner shop. There is the creation of the corner shop from bare walls to produce selected by Indian, Iranian, Jamaican, Polish and English shopkeepers. There is a fantastical sweet shop that wouldn’t be out of place in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. There are the homes attached to the Corner Shop. There is also the surreal experience where a shop keeper sits on an Indian inspired throne and talks about the 200 yeas of shop keeping that is in her blood. I really never knew that there was so much that could be told about the unassuming Corner Shop.
The stories are based on interviews conducted with the local communities by volunteers trained in interviewing skills. The performance itself retains this authenticity, professionals work with local volunteers to re-enact some of the stories, showing the corner shop in its heyday, as the pillar of the local community, to its gradual demise with the expansion of the supermarket.
In one scene, the difference is highlighted when two shopkeepers have taken £10 on their first day: the delight of a sixties shopkeeper is contrasted with the disdain of her modern counterpart.
There are dark tales; the unsolved murder of the fifties sweetshop owner killed for his takings, and the vulnerability of a lone shopkeeper when faced with a gang of menacing hoodies.
There are heart-warming tales; the community that supports the family facing hordes of bullies from the local school, to the shop owner that finds and returns her regulars purse and comforts her over a cup of tea.
In all, The Corner Shop is a celebration of a part of history that is dying out, a nostalgic look at a traditional part of British life that has been embraced and shaped by a wide array of cultures.
Supermarkets just don’t generate those kinds of stories.
Highly recommended.
- Star Bendick
Until 4th October
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I saw Corner Shop on Friday and it was a superb piece of theatre which I would recommend to everyone (and have been ever since!) Beautifully written and constructed, not least the parallel world created towards the end of the piece where the audience experiences two scenes which, although you only realise once you have seen them both, are interconnected with exquisite timing and a verisimilitude rarely experienced with such authenticity.
Go see it. It’ll be the best £6 you’ve spent in ages.
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I loved this! The write, director, actors and everyone who worked on the sets and the actual piece of theatre have done a brilliant job in communicating a serious subject in a sensitive and thouroughly enjoyable way. As a researcher it was lovely to see a vast amount of qualitative information turned into such a vibrant piece of theatre. It will definitely makes you stop and think next time you walk in to your local corner shop (if you still have one!) Well done to everyone involved. Dont miss it!