16 Postcodes is currently running at King’s Head Theatre, as part of the Main House Later series. After a successful run last year at the Edinburgh Fringe, writer-performer Jessica Regan has brought her show home. She answers a few questions for us below.
Jessica has lived in London for 20 years, at 16 different postcodes. But has she found home?
Enter into the funny, moving world of Jessica’s personal, real-life city stories inspired by true tales of love and landlords, of mice and men and more, each one landmarking a life spent as Generation Rent.
Whether it’s a life-changing phone call in Greenwich or the kiss of her life behind a KFC, the kindness of Pret workers in Brixton or auditioning to play a neanderthal in her underwear, you’ll help her find her way through an entirely unique hour where each night the audience selects stories from her trove of 16 – one for each postcode. It’s never the same show twice. Much like her address most years.
If you’ve ever left home, if your life does not look like how you thought it would, if a person, place or job has ever broken or healed your heart or if you feel like the property ladder has impaled your hopes and dreams… this powerful, hilarious show is for you.
Where: King’s Head Theatre
When: to 8 Mar, 9pm
Ticket link: https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/16-postcodes-jhby
16 Postcodes is about the reality of Generation Rent, who move from one address to another without settling in one home. Why did you decide to make this into a show?
I wasn’t seeing my story being told, which is always a good provocation, right? We have seen the scatty, can’t-settle, single-girl story usually told through a prism of judgement and ‘if she could only meet the right person’, right? But I wanted to tell a story of someone looking for home, and whilst loving their life and trying to hang onto it.
The show relies on improvisation and suggestions from the audience. Why was it important to you to have that collaboration to develop the narrative?
It definitely relies on the audience to be the connective tissue for the monologues, as they choose what postcodes they want me to do next, and those interactions are what make it special. It would be lonely up there on my own without being able to check in and chat. I wanted to talk to an audience rather than at them. I’ve done plenty of the latter! It’s closer to crowd work and stand-up in that way than improv, I’d say. The monologues themselves are tightly scripted.
The show was a big hit at the Edinburgh Fringe. Have you made any changes between now and then?
We are always refining and improving and learning, that’s the only reason I’d do it again. The clay will never be dry! I’ll always be tinkering.
Does your Irish background impact how you see London life and landlords?
My Irishness is inextricable from my character, so it’s not a lens I view these things through; it’s how I see it. London was more of a culture shock than I expected, and more welcoming in other ways. There are parts of living in the UK that I’m very grateful for, the NHS, for example. But if I had a problem philosophically with English landlords, I wouldn’t have lasted very long. I have a problem with bad landlords, wherever they’re from.
You’ve lived in London for two decades. What’s the best thing, the worst thing, and the thing that has changed the most in that time?
The best thing is what I came for, the opportunity to do creative, meaningful work. I feel like you can make things happen in London because there’s such a high concentration of talented people from all different fields, you can make connections fast. I have a roster of incredible collaborators, and we get it done, ya know? No messing about. I love that. This show has gone from a scratch to WIP to an Edinburgh run to an off-West End venue. London, baby!
The worst is the homelessness crisis in general. It is an utter disgrace, and it is getting worse all the time. I do what I can, but it’s not enough and not OK that it is tolerated by the government and institutions.
What has changed the most is pollution. Not to gross your readers out, but even twenty years ago, London was filthy. ULEZ has made an incredible difference. The air quality is so much better.