I’m always fascinated to know what it is about a show that resonates with audiences. The reaction to Light has constantly surprised me. I’ve learnt from our audiences’ responses that Light’s form is exhilarating, sometimes scary, and always surprising. But I believe something more profound is what keeps them coming to see the show – sometimes more than once.

Light is a nightmarish tale of love, betrayal and technological power; it was inspired by Edward Snowden’s revelations about state surveillance back in 2013, and conjures up an Orwellian future where a totalitarian regime monitors the thoughts of its citizens through implants. The entire piece is set atmospherically in total darkness and employs physical theatre, LED torchlight and pulsating soundscapes to draw audiences deep into its sci-fi realm.

The show has been touring on numerous occasions since its 2014 premiere throughout an epoch that has seen the U.K. sleepwalking gradually towards a mass surveillance state. We currently have a Prime Minister who wants to get rid of our Human Rights (including the right to privacy) and is pushing hard to implement the infamous Snoopers Charter.

“I was stuck on how to create a future on stage that didn’t resemble a 70’s Doctor Who set.”

The journey of the production was unexpected. It all started for me in 2004 when I had a terrifying nightmare set in the future of a surveillance, totalitarian state, inspiring me to write it all down and try to create a piece of theatre about it – unsuccessfully – for 9 years. My struggle had been twofold; on the one hand the whole notion felt very farfetched, paranoid even – which was interesting – and on the other hand I was stuck on how to create a future on stage that didn’t resemble a 70’s Doctor Who set. But the surveillance revelations exposed by Edward Snowden gave the idea sudden relevance and a solution to the problem of creating the future.

What had felt farfetched became all too real – we were being watched in ways that seemed shocking and unbelievable – and not only that, our secret service division, GCHQ, had a rather wonderful code name for our metadata upon which they were spying: LIGHT.

What is staggering now, is not that we are living in a mass surveillance state that’s slowly but very surely making their invasion of our privacy legal, it’s that we as people are allowing this invasion to become the norm. That is where the danger lies – if it becomes normal for the state to invade your privacy, then it follows that self censorship, an inherent fear of being watched, being careful about what you store online also become the new normal. We don’t only lose our fundamental right to privacy – which was fought for long and hard by previous generations for good reason – we normalise this loss and forget that we shouldn’t be living in this way; that strangers should not have access to our private conversations, webcams, documents, bank details, phone numbers, Google searches, or be tracking our location, or tracking our ‘emotions’ to see which way we will vote, or to try and influence our vote.

In 2016 Light was invited to tour around China. We had a brilliant adventure – but it was also a shock to us as a company. There had been some trepidation about touring in China, where there are over 60 internet censorship regulations in place and a very watchful eye on the citizens of the republic. Is it even legal, or safe to perform such a show out there? We presumed so, but a lingering fear led to many jokes about how we might never return. But it wasn’t the surveillance or draconian rules that shocked, we had expected that, what shocked us was that we had built up an impression of China through what we were told in the UK, the press, through the internet, news and so on – and it was very far from the truth of our experience.

“It was the first time I felt a strong sense of having been conditioned by my environment at home, influenced.”

It was the first time I felt a strong sense of having been conditioned by my environment at home, influenced. It’s easy to judge China’s politics, I myself still don’t know nearly enough about it – but the people I met and the audiences who came to see Light, and who stayed behind to talk with us afterwards revealed that it is a country and a people far more complex that we had allowed in our imaginations.

The people we met in China loved the show, they asked us if it was about China, if the red coloured LED lights we used were a metaphor for China – their questions were challenging, freely asked and intelligent and exciting debate about the production followed the tour. In contrast however, just as we were thinking we had it all wrong after a brilliant post show discussion in which some brave and challenging questions were asked, we learned the following day that the next post-show discussion was cancelled so as not to upset officials. We encountered a people who seemed to challenge our preconceived views, a people who questions – and a state that is continually trying to control them.

Coming back home, it dawned on me that we’re not so far from this reality – and in fact, being the most surveilled nation in the world, we’re probably worse. But the power of normalisation is such that you just don’t see it. As I said, it’s easy to judge another country, but in this case it would be hypocritical.

The power of dystopian science fiction – aside from its imaginative take on what’s to come – is that it uses ‘the future’ as a metaphor and a warning for the clear and present dangers in our own time. I believe the continued demand for Light reflects the fact that the themes the show explores continue to resonate and even grow more urgent to this day.

> Light runs from 31 May – 17 Jun, find out or more or book tickets

> Watch the trailer 

The school machine chews people up and spits them out.

If they’re lucky, they find something along the way that sparks their interest enough to pursue in further study or a vocation, but for me, and a lot of other people I have met and still meet, you come out the other end with a head full of stuff that has no discernible use (beyond vomiting it onto an exam paper) and a heart heavy with self doubt and disillusionment.

I wasn’t lucky enough to have that one special teacher. The lady in English who slips you The Count Of Monte Cristo after lesson because she thinks you’ll like it. The guy in French who lends you Les Apprentices on DVD because he’s noticed your affinity with stories. Maybe those teachers did exist in my secondary school. Maybe it was my fault. Maybe the general air of bland apathy I had adopted just to get through the workplace atmosphere of school led them to believe that I didn’t have any fledgling interests or germinating passions that might respond to that one off lunchtime chat or stolen after school exchange. Who knows?

I do.

I’ve thought about it a lot over the last decade and I’m pretty positive that none of my creative passion or the origins of what I now do for a living was sparked during my time in secondary school. In fact, quite the opposite. I believe that it took me nearly ten years after leaving, to shake off the beige factory mentality school had instilled in me.

I am now an artist.

For the last twelve years I have made art, for a living.

I make enough money to live in London, eat reasonably well, and share the task of raising two children. I have travelled the world through my work and been involved with collaborations and creative processes that have led me to a place where I feel sure I’m doing what I’m supposed to do. And I want to share.

Not everyone wants to be an artist. Not every young person is excited by making stuff up. I don’t think that we should be encouraging every secondary student to pursue careers in the creative industries, or even give a toss about art. What I do think, is that a career in the arts should be on the same shelf of prospective professions as Doctor, or Lawyer, or Footballer, or Journalist, for anyone who likes the idea of it to choose for themselves without doubting it’s validity. I also think that elements of creative practice are ridiculously beneficial for all human beings, whatever their interest.

My life is a constant juggle of indefinites and epiphanies. Opportunities and compromise. Subsidy, rejection, collaboration, mistakes, discovery and adventure. And I love it.

I have built a career around my own personality and ideas and, through my work, I am an example. An example for anyone who, like I did, has ideas that don’t seem to fit the presented career paths that are encouraged and as a result starts to doubt their own potential. I am the example I wish I had encountered when I was at school.

> Polarbear’s new show Dark Corners runs from 5 – 22 April, find out more or book tickets.

As young people, we are angry. We are isolated from the political system, our welfare state is collapsing, unemployment’s at a record low and we are the first generation in British history who are going to be poorer than our parents. We tried to get organised in Sheffield, but there was an ever growing sense that nothing could be done.

We first met the Focus E15 mums when we went to campaign with them at their weekly street stall on Stratford Broadway in Newham, London. Immediately, we were overwhelmed. As well as a campaign with humour, joy and love at its core these women had huge grit, fire and a hell of a lot of resilience. Here were people who had found their voice and were ready to fight.

It has now been over two years since we first met the mums. Together we’ve campaigned, leafleted and demonstrated while they resisted eviction. We have worked closely with them, as well as other housing campaigners, journalists and politicians to create artistic work that would make their story heard. From the beginning, something that shines through are the characters of the mums, particularly Jasmin Stone and Sam Middleton who have passion, strength and a true love that is so clearly driven by being a mum.

The people we have met throughout this campaign are extraordinary. The Focus E15 Campaign is full of the most ambitious, resilient and selfless people we have ever met in our lives. But their story is not an extraordinary one. It is now worryingly familiar. In 2016, 64,000 families were moved out of London*. Homelessness has increased 30%** in the last year. The 29 eviction notices the mums received were proof of the rule, rather than the exception to it.

The last five years have been a time rife with austerity and hardship, and it is only set to get worse for the most vulnerable in our society. The conditions so many people are forced to live in are heart breaking and lives are being lost due to lack of care from the British political establishment. But the story of the Focus E15 mums has a silver lining. They are the evidence of the power of people. They are the living proof that by coming together and organising, even under the most difficult circumstances, people can stand up against what is wrong, and win.

This is a message that needs sharing far and wide. We want this play to reach people like us, before we met the mums – people who feel hopeless and think that nothing can be done. Everyday across the country, young people and their families are being made homeless because they can’t afford somewhere to live in an increasingly unforgiving climate. They need to know they are not alone. We hope showing the story of the E15 campaign across the country will mobilize audiences against the conservative government and their relentless austerity measures. From Hull to Lincoln, Bridport, Folkestone and Battersea, this story needs to be heard so we can all put the mum’s mantra into practice: educate, agitate, organise.

Helen and Matt

> E15 will run from 13 Mar – 1 Apr, find out more or book tickets

*http://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property-news/number-of-londoners-leaving-the-capital-reaches-nineyear-high-74000-households-move-out-in-2016-a107131.html

**http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/homelessness-crisis-one-in-25-london-children-lives-in-temporary-accommodation-10151844.html