Last night we saw a production of Peterloo by Wakefield’s Red Shed Players in conjunction with St Catherine’s Food Bank @theatreroyalwakefield in the Walker Studio.

The first half had me all out of goosebumps. The players told the devastating story, or maybe that should be devastating facts told as a story, of the Peterloo Massacre, the story of the brave people of Manchester and surrounding areas who marched in peace for their workers rights, following terrible living conditions secondary to chronic unemployment following the Napoleonic Wars, that included the more familiar battle of Waterloo.

These people changed the face of reform forever, not without unjust attack by the armed yeomanry, causing death and serious harm, not without the arrests of journalists who reported the truth. You can read a brief of the massacre at the Wiki link above or at many of the other searchable online resources.

The second half had me all out of teardrops. The players compared Peterloo to the current face of worker’s rights, I wish I could say this was juxtaposed, but I can’t.

The gig economy, self employment with sickness, qualified asylum seekers with skills we need who are not allowed to work, food bank use increases by working families, zero hours contracts and the eerily dehumanised “fulfilment centres” attached to the online shopping phenomena (or should that be online shopping behemoth?!).

I hope you get to see this performance, it’s going on tour locally. If nothing else, see the facts on the photo attached.

We are the fifth biggest economy in the world, 30% of our children are poor, 67% of those children are from working families. And as we are about to get another prime minister we didn’t vote for (May only scraped in as a DUP coalition, remember) look at the Food Bank figure increases here in black and white. Distracted as we are by shiny consumerism, and I’m as at fault as the next woman.

Changes stick best when they happen gradually. Time to think about all those tiny drops that make an ocean. The irony that a dramatic performance has ‘re-minded’ me, quite literally, that subtle changes I can make day to day, can become powerful.

#peterloo #manchester #foodbanks