Home is where the heart is: building, belonging and emotional engagement in anti-austerity performance

Abstract

In 2011, Reading-based theatre collective In Good Company devised an anti-austerity play called The Pact. The collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market as the backdrop of the 2007/8 financial crisis, and the impact on UK housing and homelessness of early policies of the coalition government, meant that themes of home circulated in the performance. Home also functioned in less literal ways in a production designed to agitate by voicing local dissent, and which attempted to build an activist network through rehearsals that were open to the public. Drawing on community organising theory, the article proposes that rehearsals provide a suitable home for political organising, where collaborators deconstruct and imagine worlds anew as they strive towards a common goal. It also acknowledges our emotional connection with home, and argues that strong feelings triggered by scenes in The Pact were integral to audience members’ awareness of themselves in society, and that critical and emotional engagements offer a potent combination in activist theatre. As local councils across the UK face bankruptcy, and The Pact’s alarming forecast looks conservative against impacts of social-spending cuts and accelerated privatisation in 2018, it is important to scrutinise effective activist practice to inform further activity.