{{italic title ''Hoxton Story'' is an epic and poetic multi-plot

fable Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular mo ...

marking the 10th anniversary of the multi-award-winning theatre company The Red Room.

Inspiration

Hoxton Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, England. As a part of Shoreditch, it is often considered to be part of the East End – the historic core of wider East London. It was historically in the county of Middlesex until 1889. I ...

, England, became notable in the 1990s as a groovy district of loft apartments and the stomping ground for artists that came to be collectively known as the yba's –

Young British Artists The Young British Artists, or YBAs—also referred to as Brit artists and Britart—is a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London in 1988. Many of the YBA artists graduated from the BA Fine Art course at Goldsm ...

. The area also needed urban regeneration, and the government promised an influx of funding to improve housing and social amenities. Artistic Director

Lisa Goldman Lisa Goldman is a British theatre director, dramaturg, writer and author. She was Artistic Director and joint Chief Executive of Soho Theatre (2006–10) and The Red Room Theatre Company which she founded (1995-2006). In 2008 Lisa was included ...

and her team spent periods between 2004 and 2005 interviewing residents of Hoxton housing estates to find out just what has changed for them. Their answers and perspectives form the basis of the production of ''Hoxton Story''. Goldman also took inspiration from the relationship between

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

and the Hoxton area. Shakespeare was once a Hoxton resident and most of the houses in the surrounding estates are named after characters in his plays; the sub-plot of ''Hoxton Story'' is loosely based on

Romeo and Juliet ''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...

The Production

''Hoxton Story'' was an intimate site-specific walkabout performance through a regenerated London community. A visual and aural montage of facts, fictions and

verbatim Verbatim means word for word. Verbatim may also refer to: * Verbatim (brand), a brand of storage media and flash memory * Verbatim (horse), an American racehorse * ''Verbatim'' (magazine), edited by Erin McKean * Verbatim theatre Documentary the ...

testimony culminating in sound and video installations around Hoxton, an interactive website, on-the-street performances, a book and an interview archive. Besides writer and director Lisa Goldman, the team included

set designer Scenic design (also known as scenography, stage design, or set design) is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly trained ...

Jon Bausor Jon Bausor is an international stage and costume designer for Theatre, Dance and Opera. Based in London, he is an associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company and designed the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games. Education Bauso ...

, contemporary

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

Leo Asemota Leo Asemota (born 1967 in Edo State, Nigeria)Leo Asemota (20 October 2005"Leo Asemota: biography" ''TheGuardian.com''. is a contemporary artist living and working in London, England. Asemota employs photography, film and video, performance, scu ...

lighting designer In theatre, a lighting designer (or LD) works with the director, choreographer, set designer, costume designer, and sound designer to create the lighting, atmosphere, and time of day for the production in response to the text while keeping ...

Jenny Kagan,

sound designer In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

Kate Tierney and digital artists Elvina Flower and James Smith. Performers from Hackney's Young People's Theatre worked alongside a group of actors that included

Tam Dean Burn Tam Dean Burn (born 1958 in Leith, Scotland) is a Scottish actor who has played a wide range of roles on stage and screen. On television this includes multiple roles on long-running detective series ''Taggart'', youth sci-fi thriller '' Life For ...

. The Producer was Tim Jones of Solar Associates. ''Hoxton Story'' opened on 10 September 2005 at

Hoxton Hall Hoxton Hall is a performance arts theatre and community centre in the Hoxton area of Shoreditch, at 130 Hoxton Street, in the London Borough of Hackney. A grade II* listed building, the theatre was first built as a Music hall in 1863, as MacDonal ...

to sold-out performances. The production was filmed and later published on Lisa Goldman's YouTube page in July 2012 and can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1j4VGqyl4k

''Hoxton Story'' – The Book

A book also titled ''Hoxton Story'' was published to accompany the production. The book contained extracts from in depth interviews conducted by The Red Room team with twenty-five Hoxton residents that included

squatters Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

, council workers, community activists and artists. The interviews explores their dreams, disappointments and achievements in relation to the land and environment of Hoxton, as home, work and recreation; as public space and as capital waiting to be realized. The book also features a newly commissioned portfolio of portraits by

of the residents that were interviewed.

External links

Online version of the book'Hoxton Story' on The Red Room Official Website
* ttp://arts.guardian.co.uk/reviews/story/0,11712,1571656,00.html Lyn Gardner review in ''The Guardian''br>British Council's profile of The Red Room
2005 plays British plays