A few months ago, we placed an ad in the Metro and Evening Standard:

“iceandfire theatre is seeking interviews with Londoners who are living in poverty (on low wages, long-term unemployed, homeless, living in temporary accommodation) who would like their stories to be told. £40 cash offered. Anonymity guaranteed.”

The response was immediate and overwhelming. Many more people than we have the capacity to speak with got in touch. Since April, we have conducted 30 in-depth face-to-face interviews with some of the respondents. As part of the work we are doing with Trust for London, we are interested in building a human profile of what poverty in London looks and feels like. Some of these stories will be included in our outreach script Broke, which is regularly updated. Some will inspire a new piece of theatre we are planning for the summer of 2011. Over the next few months, we’ll be blogging about some of the people we’ve met. Today, we’ll hear from ‘Brian’ in his own words.

Brian is a 31 year old man who grew up in Manchester and has lived in London for eight years. After being in constant employment in catering and jewellery industries, he found himself without work in 2008 and became homeless.

“I ran out of money and everything, it was unbelievable. It was my lowest point, well apart from my mum passing away, it was equal to that. I mean gosh it’s so hard to describe. I can still remember my first night sleeping rough, even though it was over a year ago. It was so new to me, something that I hadn’t planned for. It was very scary and stressful. I went to the train station and just tried to hang around central. And I couldn’t sleep outside that’s why I ended up sleeping on buses in the end. You sit on it for an hour and a half until the driver tells you to get off then you get on another one, and try to sleep in between.

“I woke up every morning for a year constantly stressed out. I had nowhere to go. I mean I didn’t know anything about homelessness and there’s not much help, I mean there is a bit but you have to dig deep to get it. I couldn’t tell my family, I was too ashamed. I just didn’t say anything about it. Just pretended everything was fine. Deep down inside you know you’re going to get through it so you have to remain strong and positive.

“In the last few years I haven’t been able to find anything steady. I occasionally work for an agency, doing temporary factory work and leafleting but not much. I’m living in a hostel right now. All I want is a good job, maybe become a supervisor or something in an area that I’ve already worked in, but mainly just to be happy really with my girlfriend. The homelessness hasn’t really prevented me having girlfriends funnily enough! I just wish people be a bit more open-minded because it really can happen to anyone.”

The shame Brian feels about his situation is echoed in many of the stories we have heard. Most of the interviewees are very aware of the stigma attached to living in poverty – i.e., if you’re in that situation it’s your own fault, you’re lazy, you’re not trying hard enough, etc. By telling their stories, they (and we) are hope to undermine some of those assumptions.

By Christine Bacon, Artistic Director