An Incomplete History of Housing Told in Nine Plays

Artistic Director Adrian Jackson

Associate Director Caitlin McLeod

“Cardboard Citizens are pushing the boundaries of what needs to be said
and opening up the discussion to more people who can make a difference”
A Younger Theatre

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Fresh from the sell-out tour of CATHY, a group of performers from acclaimed theatre company Cardboard Citizens is squatting in The Bunker to present a playful exploration of housing from the slums of Victorian London to the madness of London today.

An immersive multi-story speculation on need, greed and good intentions, HOME TRUTHS is revealed through the world premieres of nine short plays by some of the UK’s most exciting playwrights: Sonali Bhattacharyya, Lin Coghlan, EV Crowe, Anders Lustgarten, Nessah Muthy, Chris O’Connell, Stef Smith, David Watson and Heathcote Williams with Sarah Woods.

Each Cycle can be seen as a stand-alone event, or you can book for two or three Cycles to receive a special discounted rate.

On two days, audiences will also be able to join Cardboard Citizens for a serious theatrical sit-in and watch all nine plays in one day as a Tri-Cycle, with a special discounted ticket rate and plenty of surprises planned…

The Play Cycles

Cycle One

Slummers by Sonali Bhattacharyya

1887. Polly, 16, clashes with her mother, Ada, against the backdrop of the Victorian housing crisis. Polly is desperate to escape the slums at any cost, but Ada believes the compromises they’d have to make are too high. A story about the ‘deserving poor’ and the obstacles they face, whatever choices they make.

The Ruff Tuff Cream Puff Estate Agency by Heathcote Williams with Sarah Woods

Squat Now While Stocks Last. In the early 1970s, Heathcote Williams and friends set up an ‘estate agency’  to provide free accommodation for homeless people: ‘A tiny oasis in the capitalist consumerist shit-hole run by bloviating wank-puddles, and the forces of awe and boredom’.

This is their story.

Back to Back to Back by Stef Smith

Nine months. Two couples. One building. Four people are trying to figure out their futures but with their backs against the breadline everyone is struggling to stay afloat. White flight, fertility and inhospitality are explored in this poetic domestic drama that examines the difference between a house and a home.

Cycle Two

The Table by Lin Coghlan

In the backroom of a house in South London, residents from 1919 and 2017 find themselves struggling with similar challenges – what is home and in order to find one what might one be prepared to sacrifice? Wine is consumed, secrets confronted and the longing for a place to call one’s own unites the people who shared this space 100 years apart.

Put The Schwarzes Into De-Stat by Nessah Muthy

London. 1958. Two women, one black, one white, battle against the ravages of Rachmanism and the ‘other’. Amidst fear, hate, violence and racism war is unleashed on streets of Notting Hill. Will either woman make it home?

The House With the Yellow Front Door by Anders Lustgarten

Michael is one of the lucky ones. He’s got the Right to Buy. The right to choose the colour of his own front door. The right to leave this dreary, dull little life behind and seek adventure. To spread his wings and become the man he always knew he could be. And he can’t wait…

Cycle Three

Henrietta by David Watson

June 1936. In a purgatorial reunion with her late husband Samuel, the philanthropist and social reformer Henrietta Barnett is asked what she would consider her greatest achievement. Her answer lies in NW11 between Golders Green and Finchley. But a trip to the 21st century might just trigger a rude awakening…

Nostalgia by EV Crowe

It’s 1946, Anna’s sick and she knows what she’s got. She tries to tell her husband Martin, who is back from the war, and their friend Abel and then the doctor. She had it before the little place, it got a bit better in the communist squat, then worse again in the pigsty. But no one believes her illness is real, or what it means or that you can die from it.

Grip by Chris O’Connell

A series of unforeseen events change 51 year old Lorna’s life irrevocably. When she is diagnosed with terminal cancer, only days afterwards, in a freak timing of events, her landlord announces that he is evicting her and she is plunged into a world she knows nothing of. Benefits, homelessness testing, bidding for social housing.

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About Cardboard Citizens

Cardboard Citizens is an award-winning theatre company, renowned for its work with and for homeless audiences. It has toured across hostels, day centres, and prisons for the past 25 years, bringing theatre to the most marginalised in society. Through bold and immersive theatre, Cardboard Citizens break down conventional divisions between audiences and performers. HOME TRUTHS is made possible with the support of Arts Council England, the Big Lottery Fund, Jerwood Charitable Foundation, The London Community Foundation, Cockayne – Grants for the Arts, The Leche Trust and The Golsoncott Foundation.