Adrian Jackson (theatre director)

As Associate Director of London Bubble, a long-established London touring community theatre company, he directed a number of productions, including Once Upon a Time, Far Far from England by Farhana Sheikh, Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare and Too Much Too Young by Catherine Johnson, as well as a number of Forum Theatre projects with communities including Irish Travellers, deaf people, and adults with learning difficulties.

Jackson first bought a book by Augusto Boal in 1976. He found The Theatre of the Oppressed ‘exciting but difficult to read,’ and skipped to the end to scan the few practical exercises offered almost as a postscript. In the late 1980s he encountered the work again, in workshops with Boal himself, and ended up inviting him to London to deliver a workshop at London Bubble, where he was working as Associate Director.[3]

At that time, though many theatre folk and activists were aware of The Theatre of the Oppressed, there had been no serious investigation of whether this methodology, invented in South America (if incubated during Boal’s exile in Lisbon and Paris, and subsequent trips around the world), would work in the UK. With the team at London Bubble, they applied in advance to London Arts Board for funds to put these principles into action, as Jackson explained ‘we created a list of the type of ‘oppressed’ groups that might be interested in working with; the list was long, with at least 30 different constituencies being considered, including unemployed people, nurses, teachers, people with mental health issues, disabled people, prisoners, youth workers, women, you name it.’[4]

This was the tail end of a turbulent period of British history, during which Margaret Thatcher’s government and then John Major’s had sought to apply shock tactics to an economy which had been seen as the sick man of Europe, to render it more productive, partly by way of bringing the unions to their knees; by this thinking, amongst other things unemployment (of the many) was a price worth paying for prosperity (of the few). The Big Bang had happened in the city, brash yuppies brayed openly of their wealth, and politicians spoke of (the inconvenience of) stepping over homeless people in doorways on their way to the opera. Suffice it to say, political opinions were polarised. Eventually, by a process of elimination, based partly on our interests and knowledge, partly on considerations of practicality (who would be able to take part in such a project, working intensively for some five weeks), and partly upon the prevailing political situation, we arrived at the idea of working with homeless people.[5]

Jackson is the founder and former director and chief executive of the theatre company Cardboard Citizens, who produce work particularly by, with, and for those who have experienced homelessness, including former homeless people, those at risk of homelessness, refugees or asylum-seekers.[6]

Jackson founded Cardboard Citizens in 1991, based around the principles of Augusto Boal and his Theatre of the Oppressed model. The company tours theatre productions, especially interactive Forum Theatre, to venues including hostels, day centres, schools and theatres. As described by Cardboard Citizen Ambassador, Kate Winslet:

Bringing creativity or 'beauty' into unexpected environments is really what Cardboard Citizens does every day. Many of us perceive the theatre as a grand space with velvet curtains, comfy chairs and projectors lighting up the stars. Cardboard Citizens' stages are often homeless hostels, soup kitchens and prison libraries, sometimes the street. I've seen first- hand the incredible effect that this has on people, often those who think this kind of culture can't reach them, and how it really brings out the best in them. I think the secret lies in the fact that the company train people with experience of homelessness to encourage others to come on board, it's that peer-to-peer ethos that really hooks people in, that and the company's emphasis on setting high standards for people, encouraging them to be brave and to succeed.[7]

Through Cardboard Citizens, he collaborated with a number of other organisations, including the Royal Shakespeare Company (Pericles), English National Opera (The Beggar's Opera), London Bubble (The Lower Depths),[8] and Formaat Theatre in Rotterdam (Home and Away).

In 2003, The Royal Shakespeare Company started collaborating with Cardboard Citizens, the UK’s only homeless people’s professional theatre company, to present Shakespeare’s Pericles, in a warehouse off the Old Kent Road in London. Earlier that year, a rapidly rehearsed cut-down version of Pericles was performed to audiences of asylum seekers and refugees in various unusual venues across the capital. The audience included Iraqis, Kosovo Albanians, Kurds, Turks, Colombians, Iranians and people from various African countries. After the hour long show, the audience members told their stories. The aim of the new production was to interweave some of these stories and others within a fuller version of Shakespeare’s Pericles.[14]

Timon of Athens was created for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Complete Works Festival. Included Belfast Festival, the company’s first venture onto the international festival circuit.[15]

Cardboard Citizens love to contextualise Shakespeare. Having presented Pericles as an asylum- seekers’ fable, they now induct the audience for Timon into a management-training seminar. This leads to an amusing introductory assessment of the Bard’s work in terms of how it can enhance your managerial skills: thus, Hamlet becomes about “prioritising your to-do list”. As Michael Billington explained, ‘If Adrian Jackson’s production of Timon works, it is less because of the packaging than because of its grasp of the raw essentials... His success (though) lies in getting to the despairing heart of Shakespeare’s play. The production may be intended as a moral warning against a culture that elevates reckless individualism. What comes across, through a lively ensemble, is Shakespeare’s piercing understanding of Timon’s tragic bipolarity.’[16]

Forced out of London by spiraling living costs, Cathy finds herself in an unfamiliar town with no friends and no money; pushed to make choices she doesn't want to make. Candid, poignant and intimate, Ali Taylor's play Cathy offers a timely reflection on the lives of those at the sharp end of economic austerity, faced with impossible choices and an uncertain future.[17]

First broadcast in 1966 on the BBC, Cathy Come Home depicts a young family’s slide into homelessness. The first screening of the film led to public outrage at the state of housing in Britain and became a defining cultural landmark, demonstrating the power of art to effect social and political change.[18]

Cathy was directed by Adrian Jackson, designed by Lucy Sierra, with lighting design by Mark Dymock and sound by Matt Lewis. On its 2016 tour, Cathy was seen by more than 2,200 people, 170 of whom saw it in a hostel. In theatres, the hugely successful £1 ticket initiative has offered vulnerable and homeless people an accessible way to experience this powerful and emotive Forum Theatre piece; almost 20% of tickets have been sold at this price.

Adrian Jackson said, ‘The reaction to Cathy has been overwhelming, with audiences strongly moved, angry and compassionate in equal measure. Ali Taylor’s timely and powerful play – tapping into the same zeitgeist as I, Daniel Blake and Love at the National Theatre – has now been performed to packed houses in 15 theatres and hostels across the country from Exeter to Cumbria, and afterwards each audience has offered ideas and strategies in dynamic Forum Theatre sessions.’[19]

Co-Produced by Cardboard Citizens, Coventry City of Culture Trust, and Belgrade Theatre.The Ruff Tuff Cream Puff Estate Agency is an inspiring new musical based on the true story of how a small group of revolutionaries proved that real change is really possible.[20]

Based on an original work by Heathcote Williams, written by Coventry-born Sarah Woods, with music by Chumbawamba’s Boff Whalley, and directed by Adrian Jackson – the production included a choir of local people with experience of homelessness formed in partnership with the Choir with No Name.[21]

Mincemeat was first performed in 2001. This production was the first theatrical play based on real events in which an ordinary person affects a bigger sweep in history.[22]

The play is based on the extraordinary true story of a second-world-war deception, through which the Allies made the Germans believe that they would open a second front in Europe in 1943 through Sardinia. The deception involved a corpse whose identity was a state secret, known only to the originator of the operation, who took the secret to his grave. It was only in 1997 that the true identity of the corpse came to light.[23]

Mincemeat was praised as a remarkable piece of theatre: multi- layered, passionate and as innovative as anything on offer on the London stage. Theatre critic, Lyn Gardner, added that ‘Its success lies not in the script or the performances, which are excellent, or the fact that it is a good story that needs telling, but rather in the way form and content reflect each other. Mincemeat is a journey into the past, into death and into identity, and it is performed in different locations in an old derelict factory building. As you wander though the empty rooms and down cracked staircases you begin an expedition into the past in which the lives of the dispossessed and forgotten are rediscovered ...There is no nostalgia here, just clear-eyed acknowledgement that the dispossessed, the poor, the mentally troubled and the homeless are always with us and the powerful will simply ignore them or, if they believe there is a need, wipe them from history. There is no better reminder that behind every statistic is a face and behind every dead body a person and a story. One that in this case makes you angry and makes you cry.’[24]

Described as ‘a swirl of stories connecting different places and times, and slipping between fact and fiction.’ [25] A Few Man Fridays unearths an inglorious episode of British history. Between 1967 and 1973, the population of the Chagos Islands was evicted to make way for a US military base. For forty years they have fought for justice in an epic struggle that is unlikely to end even when the European Court of Justice delivers a ruling later this year. A Few Man Fridays traces the displacement of these 'unpeople' and the successive denial of their right to nationhood.[26]

True stories (and wild speculations) about the lives and deaths of homeless people, uncovered by the UK's leading homelessness theatre company. Bystanders narrates a selection of tales which pose the question of how you might respond to someone in need.[27] The play shines light on the little-heard true stories of the homeless and the vulnerable, such as the street-sleeping Polish guy who agrees to get a tattoo of a soon-to-be-married stag's postcode on his forehead in exchange for 100 euros. Or Vernon, the once-successful British boxer who, despite having grown up in the UK, spent 13 years stuck in Jamaica following a return to the country and a bout of living rough. Or the homeless man who was shot in the face with paint by an angry member of the public as he sat outside his local Tesco. Bystanders uses a mixture of voice over, verbatim, video and movement to represent the tales and excellent performers. Daisy Bowie-Sell added, ‘Though it may sound it, it's not all doom and gloom and Adrian Jackson's four-person production does well to weave the stories so they connect beautifully.’ [28]