Camden People's Theatre Unveils Programming for 30th Anniversary Festival THE CAMDEN ROAR

Camden People's Theatre is delighted to announce the programme for The Camden Roar – a three-week Festival of all things Camden which will run from June 4th - 23rd 2024 to mark the venue's 30th anniversary. First held in 2019 (to commemorate the 25th year of the theatre), the Camden Roar Festival explores and celebrates the lives and works of Camden residents, past and present. 

Camden People's Theatre will host a range of shows, from fully-produced to nascent works-in-progress, each of which captures a unique facet of Camden and its history. The programme is made up of four  finished productions, five works-in-progress, and three sharings of early-stage and scratch performances.

These shows reflect heavily on the ways in which Camden has changed over time, our responsibility to the past, and the ways in which its history and present reality affect the lives of those who now call Camden home. A ‘psychogeographic festival', The Camden Roar embraces the idea that geographical location has a profound effect on our emotions and choices.

Embracing Camden's Queer History

Camden has a long history of being a home and a haven for queer and gender-nonconforming people, both in its music and arts scene, and within local activism. Camden has been host to a number of iconic queer spaces and centres of LGBTQ+ belonging and community, including the Camden Lesbian Centre and Black Lesbian Group, which was the UK's only dedicated lesbian centre and which closed in 1995. Headline show GRILLS powerfully unearths that history and the role of space and preservation in understanding queer narratives. Camden's queer stories are also explored in work-in-progress SWEET TESTAMENT DIVINE, and scratch show THE CAMDEN QUEERS, both unpacking how Camden has provided a home for radicals and queer revolutionaries over time.

A bittersweet love letter to Camden

This programme explores not only the image of Camden as it is popularly seen, as a playground for artists and musicians and a melting pot for punks, queer people, and the counterculture, but also as it is in reality in 2024: an area where an increasing proportion  of the adult population is affected by alcoholism (as evocatively explored in DRAWING ON THE BOTTLE), where social housing is increasingly difficult to access (as shown through lived experience in ART FOR ART'S SAKE), and the old spirit is fading in the face of increasing privatisation (as we see in 236 CAVENDISH MANSIONS). These shows come together to write a bittersweet love letter to the borough past and present. 

Camden: harsh realities and new hope

While the ghosts of Camden may run wild in the public imagination (as seen in SECOND LIFE and work-in-progress SHE SELLS SANCTUARY ON THE PRINCE OF WALES ROAD) these plays also explore a reality for Camden's people that is often less glamorous. The Camden Roar Festival showcases Camden-based stories of creative struggle (as seen in withnail and without nail), refugee experience (as delicately testified to in CITIZEN), it's lesser-known activist past (as the history of CPT itself demonstrates in THE HISTORY OF OUR BUILDING) and the instability caused by erosion of community spaces (shown in scratch show THE OLD DAGGER). Each show weaves a different thread in a tapestry which showcases the unique nature of Camden and its many identities. Through this festival, and the ongoing existence of Camden People's Theatre, these shows preserve the borough's history, and demonstrate an ongoing hope for the future of the area as a place for artists to live, and then tell, their stories. 

Sunday Takeover

There will be a community takeover day on Sunday 9th June that will feature a host of free workshops, talks, creative activities and performances. There will also be an interactive installation created at the start of the festival that audiences and artists can contribute to – more details to be announced.

Tolmer's Square Festival

The festival Will Close with Tolmer's Square Festival; a free family-centric arts festival in the heart of Tolmer's Square, Camden (NW1), hosted by Camden People's Theatre. The festival was founded in lockdown in 2020 to provide entertainment for socially distanced residents, and encompasses live performances from a variety of acts as well as ‘try-it-out sessions' for the audience, encouraging people to get involved in everything from beatboxing to clowning and offers free food and drink, giant games, music, face painting, and more.

Artistic Director of CPT Brian Logan says: “On our twenty-fifth birthday in 2019, we staged the first ever ‘Camden Roar' festival, celebrating and sharing stories from London's most iconic borough. It was unforgettable: CPT at its best. How else then to mark our thirtieth birthday than by reviving that event, and inviting Camden's people to curate it themselves? We couldn't be more excited by the festival that's taking shape, headlined by Mirrorball's extraordinary story of Camden's queer history, GRILLS, and including a first glimpse of our own project excavating the storied history of CPT's building. We're proud to be situated in this remarkable corner of central London, and can't wait to share its stories, some extraordinary theatre, and a range of great workshops and activities, with local residents and audiences London-wide.”

Democratically programmed

This full programme of exciting new work has been curated by Camden People's Theatre's Local Steering Group. The Steering Group meets monthly to work with CPT on programming, commissioning, and community initiatives, and is made up of ten diverse local volunteers with a connection to and passion for Camden. Its purpose is to ensure that a range of stories that democratically represent Camden's full nature are programmed. This programme has been selected with a focus on encouraging Camden-based artists to develop their work, but also providing an outlet for stories about the unique area and its importance. 

CPT's Local Steering Group says "We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to help curate the Camden Roar festival. As a steering group consisting of local community members, we are excited about the diverse range of artists whose work celebrates the lives of Camden residents, past, present, and future. Many of us had not been part of the theatre application process before. It was a joy to see the exciting ways artists wanted to engage with the community, bringing a fresh take on new ways of making theatre. We hope that Camden Roar will demonstrate these artists' meaningful connections to the area, bringing in new audiences from the Camden neighbourhood by telling important stories that we hope residents will relate to. We can't wait to witness Camden taking centre stage in the People's Theatre! Let's make Camden Roar!" 

INTO THE ROAR was selected by CPT's New Programmers Scheme, a scheme which welcomes and trains new theatre programmers from a diverse range of backgrounds. Scheme members find and programme shows at CPT and learn about theatre curation in a hands-on environment. 

Supporting New Artists

Camden People's Theatre emphasises the importance of investing in new and emerging artists, who are a vital element in the development of new work and perspectives. Theatre-makers are at the heart of the country's performing arts ecosystem, and the CPT team are passionate about developing artists and improving access to the resources required to tell a range of diverse stories. In providing a space and opportunity for supporting new writers, collaborators, and performers, The Camden Roar aims to reiterate and celebrate the crucial nature of this work. 

THE CAMDEN ROAR FULL PROGRAMME

HEADLINE SHOW

GRILLS. 4th June - 22nd June 

Co-Produced by MIRRORBALL and CPT, and commissioned by CPT and Old Diorama. GRILLS is a show and interactive installation that explores the groundbreaking work of the 1980s Camden Lesbian Centre and Black Lesbian Group, the UK's only dedicated Lesbian centre which closed in 1995. This is a euphoric and powerful reimagining of Camden's too-often forgotten queer history, which asks us to consider the impact of artefacts, objects, and archives in preserving or erasing cultural memory. 

FULL-LENGTH COMPLETE SHOWS

DRAWING ON THE BOTTLE – A SHORT GUIDE TO ETHANOL 7th & 8th June

This is a show about alcohol, how it feeds us, and how it destroys us. A realistic, pathos-filled, and tragicomic live-drawing show exploring the journey from party girl to lonely alcoholic. This show reflects on the substance which both sustains and destroys social life; it is for anyone who's ever had a drink in Camden. 

CITIZEN 11th & 12th June

A visually compelling mixed-media show using physical theatre, projection, and live music to testify on the lived experiences of immigrants and refugees and protest their treatment and struggles. It is a timeless story of the reverberations of war from the perspective of a Kosovan Albanian mother and daughter. 

INTO THE ROAR 22nd June

Get ready to unleash your inner lion at the  “mane” event of the Camden Roar festival, with our fearless MC who is here to put the “Den” in CamDen. Three fabulous acts will take you on a wild ride of drag and cabaret through Camden's history, mythologies, and quirky characters. This fierce and fearless show will be followed by a night of  music and dancing at 10pm - join us as the party starts to really roar.

FULL-LENGTH WORK-IN-PROGRESS SHOWS

ART FOR ART'S SAKE 18th & 19th June

The audience will be invited to participate and engage in this interactive performance piece, set in Camden, written and performed by people with experience of homelessness and the criminal justice system. This distinctive show shines a wry and realistic light on the struggles of deprivation in the area. 

236 CAVENDISH MANSIONS 4th & 5th June

This unique blend of monologue and installation will explore traces of history in spaces and homes in the face of social housing crises and privatisation. This show navigates the delicate balance between reality and fiction, offering an immersive dive into the life of a Victorian tenement flat in Camden. 

WITH NAIL AND WITHOUT NAIL 13th & 14th June

This work explores gentrification, the bleak landscape for modern artists, and economic struggle, and reflects on the ways the Camden-based classic film “Withnail and I” is relatable for artists who don't possess the economic and social capital of its characters. 

SHE SELLS SANCTUARY ON THE PRINCE OF WALES ROAD  10th June

Camden has always lived partly in people's fantasies of it – this show is an homage to those dreams. An alien goddess roams the streets of Camden, trying to salvage rock & roll, looking for a rebellious messiah to salvage the area's glorious heyday, in this show that combines film, poetry, music and theatre to evoke a 1960s ‘happening'. 

SWEET TESTAMENT DIVINE 16th June

This show explores early clinical trials that combined bull testicles and young men's urine to produce an early form of testosterone hormone treatment. It draws a compelling parallel to the current state of trans and queer healthcare in the UK today, using audio recordings to literally share the evolution of trans voices over time.

SCRATCH SHOWS & SHARINGS

THE CAMDEN QUEERS 16th June

This show brings to light a much-forgotten queer ancestor, Chevalier D'Eon, a French spy and diplomat who is buried in St. Pancras Churchyard. The story of this ‘Transistor' shows that queer people have always existed in Camden. 

THE OLD DAGGER 10th June

This show draws on non-Western theatre tradition to bring a unique and authentic community experience to a genuine Camden pub, illuminating the erosion of social life and third spaces in Camden as gentrification reduces previously-precious gathering spaces to mere facades.

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