The North East Theatre Guide: Preview: Broke from The Paper Birds

Where Has The Wealth Gone?

Broke

Newcastle Live Theatre Tuesday 10–Wednesday 11 February

Arts Centre Washington Thursday 12 March

Broke is a new play by The Paper Birds coming to the region visiting Live Theatre on the 10^th and 11^th February and Arts Centre Washington on Thursday 12 March as part of a national tour.

What does it mean to be broke in 2014, as a person and as a country? Based on personal testimonies from nationwide interviews The Paper Birds return to their celebrated verbatim form of theatre to consider pennilessness in an age of personal (and national) debt

There are 13 million people in poverty in the UK and over half of these people are from working families. At Christmas 2013 the Red Cross started asking for food donations for the first time since World War II. What happens when you have to resort to sex work to pay the bills, or try to give up dealing drugs only to end up at a food bank when the money dries up, too? What happens when you have to sell everything you own to buy enough petrol for a journey across the country to visit your parents, or when at 28 you can’t buy anything more than cheap white bread to eat in the supermarket?

From the team behind last year’s celebrated Thirsty, this UK tour of Broke follows its sell-out success at the Edinburgh Fringe 2014. Sharing real life stories from the front line of poverty and debt in the UK, this new piece of verbatim theatre is a heartfelt and urgent look at the debt of a nation from displaced families and gambling addictions to beans on toast and blind leaps of faith onto the property ladder. Based on interviews taken across the UK in 2014, multi award winners The Paper Birds explore what it means to be broke, from ‘feeling the pinch’ to finding yourself penniless, in this visually stunning new production.

The Paper Birds Artistic Director Jemma McDonnell said: “Broke is the first show we are making in a trilogy about class. Armed with the statistic that the richest 1% of British people have as much as the bottom 55%, we started as we often do; by going out and speaking to people in food banks, in hostels, in charity and betting shops. As the 2015 Election approaches we are reminded that politics should not belong to the experts, it belongs to us all. Broke opens up a dialogue about austerity, inequality, about poverty and debt and shares some of the real stories and voices behind these shocking statistics.”

Company co-founder, devisor and performer Kylie Walsh said: “When making a new piece of political work, it’s always about what matters to me. I asked that question of myself, ‘what’s relevant to me, my life, my situation’? The answer was a four letter word: debt. I’m in debt. I owe thousands of pounds to credit card companies: and I’m not the only one. There are millions of us racking up huge bills that we can’t afford to pay back, that we can barely afford the interest on. And if I find myself in this situation, in full time work, what other stories can we unearth from across our culture? And crucially, how does the larger deficit, our nation’s debt crisis, filter down to me?”

The Paper Birds strive to create devised work that is culturally, socially and politically observational and conversationally urgent. Their productions emerge from a female perspective, and aim to address and evoke discussion, thought, and emotion when and where it is most needed, whilst retaining the company's signature visual and physical approach. Their past work includes In A Thousand Pieces (Fringe First and Fringe Review award winner, 2008), the highly celebrated sell-out Thirsty (2011) and 2013’s On the One Hand, with Northern Stage at St. Stephen’s. The company has also been shortlisted for Amnesty International Freedom of Expression award, The Stage’s Best Ensemble and Total Theatre’s Best Young Company.

Tickets:

Broke comes to Live Theatre, Newcastle on Tuesday 10^th and Wednesday 11the February. Tickets cost £14-£10 (£12-£10 over 60s, £5 concs) and can be bought online at www.live.org.uk or from the box office on 0191 232 1232

Broke returns to the region and visits Arts Centre Washington on Thursday 12^th March. Tickets cost £8.50/ £6 (conessions) and are available from the Arts Centre Washington box office on 0191 219 3455 or visit www.artscentrewashington.co.uk .

The North East Theatre Guide

Monday, 2 February 2015

Preview: Broke from The Paper Birds

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