Social Housing in Performance

The English Council Estate on and Off Stage

By: Katie Beswick, Enoch Brater (Editor), Mark Taylor-Batty (Editor)

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Paperback | 20 August 2020

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240 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.59 x 13.97 x 1.27

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This book explores the ways that council estates have been represented in England across a range of performance forms. Drawing on examples from mainstream, site-specific and resident-led performance works, it considers the political potential of contemporary performance practices concerned with the council estate. Depictions of the council estate are brought into dialogue with global representations of what Chris Richardson and Hans Skott-Myhre call the 'hood', to tease out the specific features of the British context and situate the work globally.

Katie Beswick's study provides a timely contribution to the ongoing national and global interest in social housing. As the housing market grows ever more insecure, and estates are charged with political rhetoric, theatre and socially engaged art set or taking place on estates takes on a new potency. Mainstream theatre works examined include Rita, Sue and Bob Too and A State Affair at the Soho Theatre, Port at the National Theatre, and DenMarked at the Battersea Arts Centre. The book also explores the National Youth Theatre's Slick and Roger Hiorns' Seizure, as well as community-based and resident led performances by Fourthland, Jordan McKenzie, Fugitive Images and Jane English.

Industry Reviews

Katie Beswick's book addresses the crisis in UK council housing boldly, but also with great care and sensitivity. Social Housing in Performance critiques the ways in which council estates are presented to us in the establishment media, and puts forward instead a compelling new typology for understanding housing issues through performance practice.
After decades in which social housing in England has been neglected, Beswick's deeply considered analysis of estate performance is very welcome. She examines not only how individual performances have figured working class life but also how these performances are caught up with broader perceptions of social housing and with British theatre's own highly fraught class politics. This is a timely and important book.

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