Jo Caird: A Theatre Experience Like No Other

Over
two years passed and I was invited to Toynbee Hall, along with other
friends of the company, to a public performance of the show currently
touring London’s hostels, day centres and prisons, Three
Blind Mice, by Bola Agbaje. The company is one of the
UK’s leading practitioners of Forum Theatre, a style of work which
calls upon audience members to stop the performance and step in to
change the course of the action, with the aim of creating a different
outcome for a particular character. The piece is introduced by an
emcee known as the ‘Joker’, who tells the audience which character to
look out for in each of Three Blind Mice‘s three
discreet scenes: what does this character want? what are the
challenges he is facing? if you were in his shoes, what would you
have done differently? After the performance, the audience is asked
which of the stories they would like to see again, and that scene is
replayed.

Any
regular readers among you will probably have gathered by now that I’m
a firm believer in theatre’s power to open people up to new ways of
thinking, change attitudes, build confidence, encourage
inter-community dialogue, and all sorts of other good things. But
even I was blown away by what I saw at Toynbee Hall two weeks ago.

Individuals
with no experience of theatre got up in front of an audience of 200
to act alongside the company (all of whom have some experience of
homelessness), stepping into the main character’s shoes to
stop him dismissing his housing officer’s offers of assistance, to seek to improve his relationships, to help him avoid becoming involved in violence.
Some of the suggestions brought about better outcomes than others,
but Terry O’Leary (a Cardboard Citizens veteran of nine years’
experience) was never judgemental in her role as the Joker, allowing
all sorts of different situations to evolve and keeping the
atmosphere positive and dynamic.

I
was amazed at how effectively the company used theatre as a tool
to explore how the attitudes we live by and the decisions we make
inform our situations, and said so to the team the next day. If I was
impressed by the response to the piece at Toynbee Hall, they told me,
I should really see a show in its intended context. Last night,
therefore, I saw Three Blind Mice a second time,
at City YMCA along with a group largely comprised of under-25s living
in supported housing at the hostel.

Initially,
it looked like the company would be playing to a very small crowd,
but following an announcement over the PA that the hostel’s
Christmas raffle would be drawn directly after the performance, the
room filled out. And although this audience of young people may not
have been keen to begin with, it’s wasn’t long before they were
deeply involved, getting up to act in front of their peers, having
lively discussions about the chosen character’s options and outcomes,
and telling their own stories.

A different scene to the one that was picked at Toynbee Hall was chosen to be replayed last night, and while at the previous performance the audience mainly sat quietly until they were asked to contribute ideas, last night was a rather more energetic affair. Clearly, no two performances of Three Blind Mice, or any Forum Theatre show, will ever be the same, making this a truly exciting way of working.

It’s
impossible to predict how this one, isolated experience of Forum
Theatre might affect the lives of the young people in attendance last
night, but there’s undoubtedly something very empowering about
changing the course of someone’s destiny, even if that someone is a
fictional character. By exploring the different consequences of a
character’s actions, this work shows just how important seemingly
small decisions might turn out to be, and encourages participants to
consider their own choices in this light. It
also acknowledges the enormous challenges faced by homeless and
displaced people trying to change their lives for their better,
including, regrettably, the flawed social policy letting down the
most vulnerable in society.

In
February, the company will be presenting a new show, A Few Man
Fridays, at the Riverside Studios, the first public production since the extraordinary Mincemeat. This is theatre made by people who really understand what it can and should do. I urge you to see it.