{"id":2515,"date":"2017-03-02T16:04:15","date_gmt":"2017-03-02T16:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/batterseaartscentreblog.com\/?p=2515"},"modified":"2017-03-02T16:11:26","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T16:11:26","slug":"helen-monks-and-matt-woodhead-on-writing-e15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/batterseaartscentreblog.com\/2017\/03\/02\/helen-monks-and-matt-woodhead-on-writing-e15\/","title":{"rendered":"Helen Monks and Matt Woodhead on writing E15"},"content":{"rendered":"

LUNG are Associate Artists at The Lowry and make theatre with communities, by communities and for communities. Helen (Co-writer) and Matt (Director and Co-Writer) have been working with the Focus E15 Campaign for 2 years. Here\u2019s what they had to say about the show: <\/em><\/p>\n

\"e15-blog-image\"<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

We first met the Focus E15 mums\u00a0when we went to campaign with them\u00a0at their weekly street stall on Stratford Broadway\u00a0in Newham, London.\u00a0Immediately, we were overwhelmed. As well as\u00a0a campaign\u00a0with humour, joy and love at its core\u00a0these women had\u00a0huge grit, fire and a hell of a lot of resilience.\u00a0Here were people who had found their voice and were ready to fight.<\/p>\n

It has now been\u00a0over two years\u00a0since we first met the mums.\u00a0Together\u00a0we\u2019ve campaigned, leafleted and demonstrated while they resisted eviction.\u00a0We have worked\u00a0closely with\u00a0them, as well as other\u00a0housing campaigners, journalists and politicians to create artistic work that would\u00a0make 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0In 2016,\u00a064,000 families\u00a0were\u00a0moved 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.<\/p>\n

The last five years have been\u00a0a time rife with austerity and hardship,\u00a0and it\u00a0is\u00a0only\u00a0set to get worse for the most vulnerable in our society.\u00a0The conditions so many people are forced to live in\u00a0are heart breaking and\u00a0lives are being\u00a0lost\u00a0due to\u00a0lack of care from the British political establishment.\u00a0But\u00a0the story of the Focus\u00a0E15\u00a0mums has a\u00a0silver lining.\u00a0They are the\u00a0evidence of the power of people. They are\u00a0the\u00a0living proof that by coming together and organising, even under the most difficult circumstances, people can stand up against what is wrong, and win.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0Everyday across the country, young people and their families are\u00a0being\u00a0made homeless because they can\u2019t afford somewhere to live in an increasingly unforgiving climate.\u00a0They need to know they are not alone.\u00a0We hope showing the story of the E15 campaign across the country will mobilize audiences against the\u00a0conservative 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\u2019s mantra into practice: educate, agitate, organise.<\/p>\n

Helen and Matt<\/p>\n

> E15 will run from 13 Mar – 1 Apr, find out more<\/a> or book tickets<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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

**<\/strong>http:\/\/www.standard.co.uk\/news\/london\/homelessness-crisis-one-in-25-london-children-lives-in-temporary-accommodation-10151844.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Helen Monks and Matt Woodhead on writing E15<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","amp_status":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[35890],"tags":[563523130,13603461,5386],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/batterseaartscentreblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/e15-blog-imagev22.jpg?fit=1000%2C1065&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5aAXu-Ez","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/batterseaartscentreblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2515"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/batterseaartscentreblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/batterseaartscentreblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batterseaartscentreblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batterseaartscentreblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2515"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/batterseaartscentreblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2585,"href":"https:\/\/batterseaartscentreblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2515\/revisions\/2585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batterseaartscentreblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/batterseaartscentreblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batterseaartscentreblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batterseaartscentreblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}