The Lamppost Petition

Hiya, 

I'm making a new show called 'The Lamppost Petition' - this title is taken from a story that my Nana told me. I would tell you the full story now but I'm saving it. Although, if you ask me about it in person, I will tell you the whole story from start to end without taking a breath. 

This is a piece about the things you never said and the questions you always wanted to ask. It’s the photograph you carry round in your purse and the sound of that song that tastes like apple pies (apples from the garden back home, you know?) 

Taking a look at aging as a social, political and personal issue, 'The Lamppost Petition' is going to be a performance about family histories, yarn bombers, Worther's Originals and how maybe we could do a bit more to support the older people in our lives. An examination of the stories given to us by our grandparents, and how these change as these people begin to leave the world... And a celebration of all the badass over-60's doing rad shit everyday. (Like these wonder women pictured below - who MAY or MAY not be Over 60.)

(Note: I am looking to identify the women in this picture in the hope to chat to them during the making of this show. This photograph was taken by me on the 4th October 2015 at the Take Back Manchester protest during the Tory conference. If you know who these women are, or someone who may do, please give me a nudge. If you somehow happen to be reading this and you are one of these women - HI! I hope you don't mind I've splashed your image all over the place and please say hello.) 

I'm making this show with the help of the North East Artist Development Network's (NEADN) 'Bridging the Gap' scheme, and this show will be touring to four venues in the North East in Autumn 2016. 

(More info about the two projects selected for BTG here)

I'll be making this show with help from charities and older people's organisations Equal Arts, Search Newcastle and Contact the Elderly and through these connections will be chatting to lunch clubs, knitting groups, bollywood dancing groups, choirs and (hopefully!) some people involved in CREE project (tbc). 

Looking at my own family history that stretches from Italy to Ireland to Retford, Nottingham and Newcastle, I'll be doing some weird stuff with paper and teabags. 

Tour Dates:

ARC Stockton - Tues 20th & Weds 21st September

Live Theatre, Newcastle - Weds 22nd & Thurs 23rd September

The Custom's House, South Shields - Weds 28th & Thurs 29th September

The Maltings, Berwick - Friday 30th September

The show will be accompanied by an installation where participants are invited to sit with me, have a cup of tea (or coffee if that's your jazz) and a biscuit and have a natter. There will be 'provocations' and questions on coloured strips of paper and the idea is that together we create a huge and ever-growing paper chain of memories, quotes, advice etc. A tea party without the twee but with the sweet sensation of satisfaction, sharing and storytelling. I will be trialing this installation at Dementia Awareness Week at ARC Stockton on Tuesday 17th May. 

Finally, if you would like to chat to me about aging, grandparents, family stories, the affect of our current government on the needs of older people or anything else (within reason!) then please get in touch. I will be holding a series of one-to-one and group chats and would love to hear as many family stories, accounts from grandparents/grandchildren/health-workers/individuals etc etc etc etc as possible. 

Recently whilst facilitating a series of 'Creative Age' drama workshops for people living with early stages of dementia and their carers, I mentioned this project to them and they all began to sing this song (George Formby - Leaning on a Lamppost). So here it is for you to enjoy! 

Hugs!

- Zoe xx

Some Thoughts on 'Get Yourself Together'

‘Get Yourself Together’ by Josh Coates, Anna Ryder & James Varney

I was ummhing and ahhhing whether to post this but here it is. 

This is a post that I’ve wanted to write for a while. A piece I had to ask Josh Coates’s permission to write. Not just because he’s a fellow artist, but also because he’s ma boyf. I first saw ‘Get Yourself Together’ in early preview form at Royal Exchange’s Swan Street studio in Manchester. This was the second time I had seen Josh perform, the first time I had been in the same room as his family and the day that we decided to stop messing about and confirm our relationship status (oooh err).

What struck me most about the performance is how open and honest and truly charming Josh is, and I’m aware that there is no possible way this can be said in any way objectively. After the preview, I wandered backstage to give him a hug, and say well done, and he was tucked away in the corner of a corridor in the ‘backstage’ area of the studio hugging his Mum and talking about his Granddad. I stood there awkwardly looking in their direction for longer than was probably appropriate. In fact it was probably a bit creepy. I had a ‘Where’s Wally’-style red & white stripy top on so I was not very subtle. 

I thought maybe this was what we did now. Wait backstage for each other after our performances, alongside family members to say ‘Well Done’, slap on the back, kiss on the cheek. But it soon became clear that this moment was not for us. It was for Josh and his lovely Mum. And I’m glad I tiptoed backwards out of the room (again, creepy), and went to help myself to the free wine and breadsticks (?!?!?!?!) and make chit chat with Josh’s friends, who were very soon to become my friends (MUAHAHA.)

You see, that day, Josh, Anna Ryder (Director of the piece & one of my most bestest friends) and James Varney (Dramaturg and one of my most lovely newest friends) made a huge step onto what I’m sure has been an incredibly tough, empowering and rewarding journey.

Since this day in 2015 (31^st July), I have seen Josh perform extracts of the show at a showcase in Elsmere Port, and the full version/final preview at The Custom’s House in South Shields. And it was this performance in this little town at the North East coast that made me want to write this piece, because this was the time that the performance changed something in me. This was the time when regardless of Josh being my boyfriend and Anna & James being my friends, the performance drop-kicked me in the most joyous and devastating way. This was the performance that a bulk of the previous development work had been leading up to, and it was bold, beautiful, angry, funny and ...‘lingering’.

For this performance Josh was both my boyfriend on stage and a complete stranger, both a friend and an educator, both someone that I care for and someone so earth-shatteringly angry. None of these things are mutually exclusive.

The company are asking for change. They are telling you the facts, the figures, how it makes them feel and what these feelings manifest as (lots of paper and vegetables in your eyeballs). And it was this most recent time of seeing this material that I wanted to help make that change. Not that I didn’t agree with Josh’s stance on the issues back in July, or that I didn’t feel engaged with the work then because of course I did, but now it’s different. It’s different because in the past few months, as the political, social and personal factors of the subject matter the show confronts has been shifting, the material and performance has been shifting too – the piece growing as the issues swell, the performance defining and asserting itself in a place where using this stance, this space, this voice is of the upmost importance.

During the performance I cried. If I was not Josh’s girlfriend I probably still would have cried. But because I am, I cried more (probz). Also I just really love crying. After the performance... I cried (obvs). I cried because I knew that this 55-odd minutes of theatre had made something happen. Not just for me but for everyone else in the room. It made you laugh and then think ‘...fuck’. It made you play ‘catch up’ just to stop you in your tracks. It doesn’t tell you exactly what to do but that’s okay because whatever you do end up doing as a result of this work is probably going to be with them. But it makes you want to DO SOMETHING, even if it is just a hug or a handshake or a chat on the way out, which is what most of the South Shields audience did.

So in advance of the performances at Royal Exchange (Studio) and Northern Stage (Stage 3), I urge you in the most biased yet genuine way to see this work, as no doubt the vote the day/(s) before will have charged the performance even more.

I think that maybe this is what we do now. Not just me & Josh, but all of us. We are learning when to (creepily) tiptoe out of the room and towards the bar, and when to shout about what you’ve seen and compartmentalise the effects this has on us, as individuals, as activists, as artists, as normal human beings, as boyfriends and girlfriends and friends and peers and voices.

I can’t say whether I will cry again on Friday, whether I will laugh at the jokes in the same way or whether I will take it in my stride in a way that I have previously been unable to. But I certainly will cherish the moments of sharing, the chaotic moments of punk explosion, the tenderness of the relationship with the audience and the energy of action. And as an artist, best friend, new friend, girlfriend, cat-lover and person, I am proud to have seen the progression of this work and hope it can be experienced by as many people as possible, even though by the time you see it, it will have changed yet again. 

Now, get yourself a cuppa. 

- Zoe xx

Get Yourself Together at Royal Exchange Manchester - 6th & 7th May - Tickets here: http://www.royalexchange.co.uk/whats-on-and-tickets/get-yourself-together 

Northern Stage, Newcastle - 24th & 25th May - Tickets here: http://www.northernstage.co.uk/whats-on/Get-yourself-together