It’s also one of those issues that’s really not going away. I mean, have you been to like any major UK city, or even not major UK town, recently and not been horrified by the number of people sleeping on the streets (which has doubled since 2010)? And that’s only the immediately visible part of the problem, before hostels, temporary accommodation, shelters and those stuck in the cycle of deceptively cheerily named sofa surfing is factored in. According to Crisis over 59,000 households (not people, households) were accepted as homeless in England last year. If that doesn’t make you angry then you’re either a garbage human being or you don’t understand the problem.
If the latter, then you 100% need to see Cardboard Citizens’ production of Cathy, currently playing at the Soho Theatre. Cathy updates the classic Ken Loach film Cathy Come Home, the inspiration for the majority of the UK’s homelessness laws (which, as a result, are actually quite progressive - in theory). It’s an absolutely bang on exploration of contemporary homelessness that anyone who wants to understand the problem more should see. It’s also a very good play, which helps.
Ali Taylor is the writer tasked with bringing Loach’s work into the 2010s and he’s done a great job. It is clearly impeccably well researched, making for a chillingly believable and almost depressingly everyday story, but more than that it’s full of humanity, anger, sadness, warmth and love. The characterisation is great - it’s full of recognisable (and recognisably distinct, which is important given two of the cast of four play multiple parts) and rounded people and the two lead roles, Cathy and daughter Danielle, are complex and real. It has a lot to say about the intersectionality of issues that affect someone’s chances of being homeless. Class and gender are clearly tackled, but I found the inclusion of nationality and race probably the most interesting. If I have a criticism it’s that the play’s presentation of people in authority positions is a bit too black and white for my taste. This is especially true of the local council staff characters who are pretty flat and complete jobsworths which, in my experience (in my day job I work a lot with council staff, including sometimes on issues to do with homelessness), isn’t entirely fair. Personal experience aside though, I also think it would have been dramatically and politically more interesting to look closer at the impossible situation that local government budget cuts are putting council staff in. No matter how much they care, and in my experience most of them care a lot, they simply have no money to help people in so many cases and I’d have liked to see this idea - which to be fair is alluded to - brought in more explicitly.
The production is enjoyably low tech. Yes there is video projection but it’s used only to cover set changes, which are done by hand by the cast every time. Lucy Sierra’s DIY set is great - who knew a selection of chairs and a bunch of oversize Jenga blocks could be so adaptive? The Jenga tower which provides so much of the set and is ever present is a great metaphorical touch too; the way it looms over the action at all times a great reminder of how quickly anyone can find themselves in Cathy’s situation. I also really liked the inclusion of verbatim (I assume) interview recordings of real people (I assume) talking about their experiences of homelessness, played with the video over set changes. They were really effective and a great reminder of how real this problem is.
The cast is great too. First of all, Cardboard Citizens as a concept is amazing and I love them - I’d heard of but not seen the company before and wasn’t really aware of what they did. Now that I am, I’m definitely a fan. I love how unashamedly activist they are too, it’s great to see a company that engages with politics literally as well as through their work. The company Citz have put forward for Cathy, all four of them, is insanely hard working. Cathy Owen is an excellent Cathy (must make getting into character easier!), especially in the quieter moments. Her face conveys a crazy amount of emotion and poignancy. As daughter Danielle, Hayley Wareham brings real complexity and depth; a great mix of typical teenage nonsense and genuine heartbreak. Alex Jones as literally every man in the play is everywhere all the time and somehow still manages to make his (almost universally awful) characters distinct and human. My pick, though, is Amy Loughton as all the other female characters. She gets some of the play’s best writing - especially on race and immigration as a Polish toilet attendant and on empathy as a Welsh bus driver - and totally sells it. I loved watching her and missed her when she wasn’t on stage (which is not often given how many characters she plays).
Cathy is an incredibly powerful, poignant and effecting piece of theatre. It’s an issue play that thoroughly gets and engages with its issue, and isn’t afraid to ask that its audience does the same. And Cardboard Citizens are great too - I’m so glad I finally got a chance to get to know them.
Cathy is at the Soho Theatre until 14th April, then tours. Check out CitizensDo.com to learn more about Cardboard Citizens’ current work on homelessness.
My seat was H5. I attended press night and my ticket was kindly provided by the company. It would normally cost £16.
Great review.
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