Things to do in a Blackout began before Covid (2019-2020). We started at a time when Brexit was always in the news. Our aim was to explore heritage from a different perspective and draw upon the contemporary parallels.
During WW2, crime rose by a reported 57%. Fraud, gang culture, looting, and robbery impacted on people’s everyday lives. Along with poverty, hunger, illness, and exceptional pressure – what was life like back home? What was our relationship with Europe like at that time?
Prior to the first lockdown, we were working with 300 young people across different schools and in a military base in Kingston upon Thames. The intention was to create a youth takeover of the National Archives in May 2020.
Then Covid hit.
Transitioning the project to online workshops with a smaller group of young people to inspire our professionally produced work, we also commissioned Sharon Kanolik to write six scripts. Imagining a fictional street in London during the Blitz, each script marks a year in the war. When you place them all together, they give you a timeline of how crime influenced everyday life during the war.
Conceived as radio plays, they will adapt to live performance. They are free to use.
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