London Artists Projects, Bloomsbury Festival and Conway Hall have teamed up to bring Truth to Power Café to Conway Hall over the next two years. In response to COVID-19, this internationally acclaimed performance event is launching a digital story telling platform, through which people of all ages, backgrounds and experiences can be heard in a digital space.
Truth to Power Café is a profound reflection on loss, hope and resistance told through memoir, image, poetry, music and live and spontaneous testimony from participants with stories to tell in response to the question:
WHO HAS POWER OVER YOU AND DO YOU WANT TO SAY TO THEM?
This internationally acclaimed performance event is now a digital story telling platform.
People of all ages, beliefs and backgrounds are invited to respond to the question by sending us 150 words in response to the question.
Is it to your parents, a sibling, politician, lover, landlord, neighbour, religious leader, boss, banker or simply your best friend? It’s time to tell them the truth.
Through a process of co-creation we will work with you to evolve your answer into a story of up to 250 words, which we will endeavour to publish via truthtopower.co.uk. We may also develop your story for the live show and/or through the medium of moving image.
Speaking truth to power is a non-violent means of conflict resolution, the origins of which lie in the anti-war movement. In our era of post-truth, and fake-news, speaking truth to power is widely accepted to mean saying something to those in a position of authority who don’t want to hear it.
Truth to Power Café is inspired by the political and philosophical beliefs of Nobel prize winning playwright Harold Pinter and his Hackney Gang. For sixty years The Hackney Gang were on the side of the occupied and the disempowered and their allies. It is these people we invite to take part in the live show and digital platform.
The Hackney Gang included Jeremy Goldstein’s late father Mick Goldstein, and poet polymath and sole surviving member of The Hackney Gang Henry Woolf, who at 90 has written original poetry for the show.
Created by Jeremy Goldstein
Directed by Jen Heyes
Verse Henry Woolf
Photography Sarah Hickson (UK) Kate Holmes (Australia)
Banners Ed Hall
Lighting Nigel Edwards
Video Conor MacMahon
Music David Bowie arranged by Sven Ratzke