An internationally renowned Islington theatre is fundraising this week for its community-centred play about the life of Islington residents.
This is part of the second year of Almeida Theatre’s three-year project, which aims to bring together up to 1,000 people of all ages from throughout Islington. Dani Parr, the Director of Participation for the theatre, said the project aims to “get involved many people from the Islington community in creating shows that they get to perform on the Almeida stage”.
Many famous actors have performed on the stage, such as Ralph Fiennes, Andrew Scott, Benedict Cumberbatch and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Last year, many people from the borough got involved, such as an actor who played the lead’s husband who had early onset dementia during the performance and improvised his scenes.
The fundraising charity Big Give will match the donations to the theatre for any amount up to £20,000 for starting Tuesday 19 March and ending on 26 March. They aim to raise £40,000 overall by next week, which Parr said would be “amazing”.
Expected to take place in late 2024 or early 2025, the play will chronicle the life of an Islington resident, said Parr: “It’s examining all the things that make up a life in Islington, particularly looking at moments of celebration, rituals, and moments of change for people.”
The money raised will go towards hiring freelance artists, production costs, and helping with participants’ travel and other barriers to taking part in theatre. To create the scripts, the team commissioned a writer after putting on creative workshops in the community for inspiration and input.
This current project is part of a wider plan of a trilogy of performances, all narrating the experiences of Islington residents. The performance last summer was about a day of a grandmother and her grandson in Islington where they take part in a spontaneous whirlwind trip around North London. This year, the play will cover the life of someone in the borough, and year three will go even further, looking at an imagined entire millennium.
24 (Day): The Measure of My Dreams
The performance titled 24(Day): The Measure of My Dreams, involved around 100 local people from across Islington. The cast included people with a wide range of experiences and ages, from 16-94. It starred Jean Woollard, 70, in her first professional acting role in over 50 years.
One of the actors involved in the first show said: “Having never acted before, this was the opportunity of a lifetime.”
They continued: “What makes this group special is that they are not people I would expect to meet in daily life.”
Community engagement
The theatre worked alongside three charities to recruit people to the project who face barriers against entering the arts, which are All Change, Arsenal in the Community, and Cardboard Citizens, a homelessness charity.
Through creative community engagement, Parr aims to help bridge the obvious gaps in the area: “There’s such a massive divide in Islington, in terms of the wealth gap. There are also all sorts of other divides around not just class and money, but intergenerational gaps and ways in which people move in silos. We hope that the work we do is doing a tiny bit of work towards breaking down those silos.”
“I think so many people in Islington assume the Almeida isn’t for them, or they think they already have to be brilliant or to know everything about theatre to be able to get involved. My biggest aim would be creating the feeling that it is a welcome space for all,” she added.
Though Parr said raising the full amount would be good, she emphasised that this will not fully cover the cost of the project. She said: “We will have to find other ways of topping that up and funding it, but it will be a hugely important part of the process of fundraising for the project.”
If you would like to donate to the Almeida Theatre, please follow this link: https://donate.biggive.org/campaign/a056900002SEV0lAAH
