1952: Southwark Stories – Media & Feedback

Please find below a series of photographs and videos documenting the process and product of our Creative Jubilee project, 1952: Southwark Stories.

Media on this page is for monitoring purposes only and has not been made public.

Project Timeline

Our project was broken down into 6 stages:

Workshops

During this stage

The Interviews

EDITING & WRITING

Designing & Planning

Rehearsals

Performance

WORKSHOPS & WRITING SESSIONS PHOTOS

INTERVIEW PHOTOS

Taken during the interview process at Elim House and Southwark Pensioners’ Centre in May 2022.

REHEARSAL PHOTOS

REHEARSAL FOOTAGE

PERFORMANCE RECORDING

A video of the whole performance captured by a member of the community.

Please do not share this video.

A higher quality record of the performance (filmed during the dress rehearsal) will be made available soon.

EVENT PHOTOS

MEETING THE MAYOR OF SOUTHWARK

We were very lucky to be joined at our event by Councillor Sunil Chopra, the Mayor of Southwark. As you can see by the photos below, the children were extremely excited to meet him and honoured that he came to their event.

POST-PERFORMANCE INTERVIEWS

A series of short interviews conducted by project participant, nine year old Okubotin.

FEEDBACK FROM THE CHILDREN

Note: In some cases the children were unable to write their feedback, so it has been transcribed by an adult.

  • “The project. A thrilling Experience. We really got to unleash our creativity. We have learned interesting facts about the Platinum Jubilee. Every part was worth it. We was able to learn more about [our] local area. Overall a great experience. I hop others would get a chance like this” Jaaziah.
  • “My favourite part of the project was when we learnt about 1952. I have learnt 1952 – I have learnt about 1952. Iris [was my favourite person to interview] because even though she needs reminding of some things she could still remember the time when it was 1952. We have been learning about 1952 and the queen and what happened ther [sic] in 1952.” Nailah, Age 8.
  • “My favourite part of interviewing people is their funny stories in 1952. I enjoyed working with other people. I liked Iris and Pauls stories.” Victoria, 8.
  • “I found the project exciting because I would be able to help plan a documentary theatre” Okubotin,9.
  • “My favourite part of the project was working with Nailah. We learnt about the famous stories from 1952. I liked doing the interviews.” Daniella, Age 5.
  • “I enjoyed interviewing the people at the SPC [Southwark Pensioners’ Centre] centre, my favourite people to interview were Paul and Iris and Kathy (because Kathy is my nan). I also enjoyed creating the poster that advertised our play because it was really fun.” Sophie, Age 14.
  • “My favourite part of the project was helping to make the poster. I have learnt about what life was like in 1952. My favourite person to interview was Kathy because she was really interesting and very funny and she’s my nan!” Zack, Age 8.Th
  • “The project:
    What was your favourite part of the project –> My favourite part of the project was learning about 1952 and also it was very interesting.

    What have you learnt about?
    – 1952
    -The local area
    -Skills
    – I have learnt about what people did in 1952 and the learning and jobs.
    -I have learnt about the life of people did then and the ordinary life.

    Who was your favourite person to interview? Why?
    My favourite person that I interviewed was Mandingo because it was very interesting and goof and I understand very well what he was talking about.

    Describe what we have been doing? We have been doing lots of gammes [sic] and new [vocabulary] and learning about the old times and the interesting things as well”

    Kamaya, 13.
  • Jahziel, 11 years old.
    “My [favourite] part of the project was getting to hear different life storys [sic] in 1952. I learnt a lot about the queens coronation. I have also learnt about there [sic] persona [sic] life storys [sic]. My [favoruite] person I interviewed was Paul because he had a lot of funny storys [sic]. The [favourite] story I lheared [sic] was Paul chasing the coach on the queens [coronation]”
  • “The project was interesting one. This is due to the fact that we were able to talk and experience how the world was in 1952. I enjoyed it. ” From Okubo-ee, 13.

FEEDBACK FROM THE INTERVIEWEES

  • “We never get a chance to interact with young people; it’s been a really nice experience” – Paul
  • “I just thought they were a really lovely bunch of kids. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised.” – Kathy
  • “It was a great experience mixing with the youngsters and I appreciate it very much.” – Vernon
  • “It’s been a pleasure talking to these boys” – B
  • “I’ve really loved it. We really liked the opportunity to do work with young people, older people and this this is a great start. I’m sure we’ll do other things together” – Cathy, Southwark Pensioners’ Centre

WELCOME LETTER TO The AUDIENCE

1952: Southwark Stories is a multi-generational, community verbatim theatre project that is a joint venture with Spring Community Hub and Shedlight Stories. With support from Arts Council England, we have been working with Spring’s youth group to create a piece of theatre that tells the stories of Southwark residents in 1952.

Verbatim means “in exactly the same words as were used originally”. In order to make verbatim theatre you take the words of people you interview or from transcripts of various speeches etc and turn them into a play. 

Which is exactly what we have done over the last 7 weeks!

After workshops about verbatim theatre and interview techniques, the children from Spring met with older members of the community at Elim House and Southwark Pensioners’ Centre and interviewed them using the year 1952 as a jumping off point. They asked about what life was like in the ’50s, how Southwark has changed in 70 years, and about their personal life, their friends and family.

Coming out of 2 years of lockdown where many older people were isolated, it has been amazing to involve them in this project alongside the children and bring the younger and older members of our community together to interact and get to know each other. 

Once the children had completed their interviews, they then took the transcripts and pulled out all the bits they found most interesting or (in a lot of cases) funny. Once they had done this they started to put the quotes together in categories to get a sense of themes and topics which we then put into an order that made sense and flowed.

Then it was time to edit. We chose to create a play that did not have specific characters, but instead formed a fast-paced piece that jumps around between lots of different people, back and forth with the performers taking on multiple roles. 

Today you will see a performance that uses our interviewees’ words and stories performed by professional actors. 

The children have taken the lead in every stage of this project, including designing the poster and deciding what activities we would have at today’s event. 

We hope that you enjoy today’s performance and other activities. The children have worked extremely hard on this project and it has been a wonderful experience for everyone involved. 

Thank you for coming and helping us celebrate the local community this Jubilee weekend!

Nell Thomas
Artistic Director, Shedlight Stories