A space for difference (and how dangerous that can feel)
I’ve been hosting Theatre Clubs for a long time now – a whole decade! – and in the first half of 2023 it’s reached its ideal state, with the support of Matt Burman, artistic director at Cambridge Junction. He’s enabled (and paid!) me to establish Theatre Club as a regular, promoted event in the Junction’s programme, which brings together regular attendees, occasional visitors and Junction staff to talk about work that sometimes challenges us, or refuses to fulfil conventional ideas of what theatre is, or what a play might be or do. The first conversation there, about Kakilang’s Home X – a dance show meets virtual reality game meets participatory piece, in which disparate people talk about their relationships to ideas of home, belonging, citizenship and migration – immediately joined the list of Theatre Clubs I dwell on and discuss with anyone who’ll listen. The particular mix of people meant that we met the show’s content with our own experiences: of moving to another country to live w...