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E15 ★★★★
Edinburgh Summerhall (Venue 26c)
Until Saturday 27th
August 2016
“We’re
here to protest every Saturday” they say as the audience take to their seats.
Surely there is no need to protest. We remember that, when the estates full of
social housing were cleared around the site of the London Olympics, the housing
would be released to those that were displaced once the event was over. This
show has the hard -hitting facts about what happens when greed is more
important than need.
The
story begins with a 17 year old girl who becomes pregnant and is then thrown
out of her home. She goes to the council for accommodation but is turned away
as she is under 18. Her only option is to sleep on the night buses. Eventually
she turns 18 and is offered a place in the mother and baby unit at Focus in
E15. This is a supported place in which the landlord receives an additional
payment in order to provide a case worker who supports the young mother. The
trouble is that the council cut that funding, resulting in the landlord serving
eviction notices on the girls in the unit.
If
you add this tale to a background of bedroom tax, the right-to-buy council
homes and landlords mopping up housing stock as buy-to-lets and you have a
housing crisis. This tale raises an eye-brow by highlighting how homes are
being cleared from their current social housing tenants and boarded up. In
other words, the show proposes, it isn’t so much a lack of housing stock but
that the housing stock is left empty. This then leads to ridiculous numbers of
people being sent to housing miles away from home. Is Manchester a place to send a mum if
her support network is in London?
The
play follows the story of the 29 mothers from the unit in E15 as they protest
and gain in confidence. It looks at how the system handled them and is
ultimately a powerful tool to open the eyes of the audience. After all, how
much could we all lose before we too are homeless?
E15
discusses a number of hard hitting issues but it isn’t party political. It
doesn’t ask for sympathy but rather for action. The vehicle of the young girls
is merely a telescope through which the bigger picture is exposed. It is
shocking but it to be congratulated for not going for any cheap shots. It is an
incredible bit of drama that deserves bigger exposure. It is the sort of
performance by a great ensemble of actors that should be picked up by TV.
Drama
is a perfect vehicle for social action when handled like this. Lung Theatre has produced a fabulous piece of
raw kitchen sink drama. It is difficult not to be moved and demand action.
This
review was written by Stephen Oliver the North East Theatre
Guide – follow Stephen at @panic_c_button
Read
the North East Theatre Guide preview here: http://nomorepanicbutton.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/preview-northern-stage-at-edinburgh.html
Tickets:
For full details or to book tickets online
visit www.northernstage.co.uk/edinburgh
or call the Summerhall Box Office on 0131 560 1581
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