SPID is the name Helena Thompson, its artistic director and CEO, prefers to go by. It also stands for Social, Progressive, Interconnected and Diverse – and, as a whole, Solidarity.
The theatre company is known for its high-quality community youth theatre on council estates. Bursting with DIY passion and championing human dignity, SPID advocates for investment and justice in social housing.
It’s based in Kensal House (built in 1937), a short walk from Ladbroke Grove station, behind a locked gate: you have to buzz or telephone to get in. There’s a small garden waiting space with an artwork full of positivity, then we are in the former estate community hall, now beautifully restored.
How To Make Art That Brings Housing Justice is the story of SPID, of that restoration, and of social justice. It is interactive from the start, as we are invited to look at archive materials, exhibits, and photographs, before writing on a Post-it what housing justice means to us.
Today’s show was sold out, with half the audience made up of a visiting student group from Hong Kong; most of the others being funders, supporters of SPID, or Kensal House residents.
The housing justice movement very much grew from the ‘streets in the skies’ that replaced the slums, and were then neglected and underfunded. Kensal House shared a landlord with Grenfell Tower and is not far from the iconic Trellick Tower. Kensal House is a 1930s build, now mixed-use but largely residential flats.
We are in North Kensington, the poorer end of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. You may recall that Grenfell’s catastrophic, fatal fire was attributed to flammable cladding installed to improve appearance. Kensal House suffered from floods and sewage leaks.
SPID wanted to do more, as a charity, to make things right. Their bid for funding was met with resistance, but the tenacious Helena (who introduces herself as “squatter and rioter”) wasn’t about to back down.
This show is part presentation, part activity, part poetry and part resistance. It is a workshop and a call to arms, for change, for empathy. It asks us to consider why social housing is essential, and what housing justice means to us and those immediately impacted.
There are sweets and party poppers. There are affirmations and meditations. Some moments touch on mental health and issues that affect the community. There is safety, dignity, integrity, respect, interest, and above all, that solidarity Helena hopes will bring us all together, hand in hand, in a circle.
Helena Thompson is an inspiring force of nature whose heart is firmly in social justice, from including Frestonia (a squatter community set up in 1974 which was home to the recording of an album by The Clash and a ‘National Theatre’ run by poet Heathcote Williams) in key local housing developments to that vision to save SPID’s home estate.
This is theatre literally at the roots. A place of warm friendship and a shared desire to disrupt, divert, and disturb for the greater good. Helena’s play, The Burning Tower, is quoted during this show, and I will certainly be seeking out a copy.
This journey is uniquely Helena’s, and is clearly an emotional one, but a call to action for all of us. The council’s failings and inertia, the residents’ hostility and suspicion – then deep appreciation, the Theatre’s artistic drive. It’s all here.
4 stars for this remarkable interactive play.
You can find out more about SPID Theatre on their website at: https://spidtheatre.com/ and their YouTube channel.