The People Show is the longest-running

experimental theatre Experimental theatre (also known as avant-garde theatre), inspired largely by Wagner's concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, began in Western theatre in the late 19th century with Alfred Jarry and his Ubu plays as a rejection of both the age in particular ...

company in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, based in the London's East End. Founded by

Jeff Nuttall Jeffrey Addison Nuttall (8 July 1933 – 4 January 2004) was an English poet, publisher, actor, painter, sculptor, jazz trumpeter, anarchist and social commentator who was a key part of the British 1960s counter-culture. He was the brother of l ...

, John Darling, Laura Gilbert, and Mark Long in 1966, and performing its first show in the basement of

Better Books ''Better Books'' was an independent bookstore. It was founded by Tony Godwin and was located at 94 Charing Cross Road, London. The shop was a significant location in the 1960s counterculture movement in London. History It was founded by British ...

in London's Charing Cross Road, the People Show was London's first

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

company and has played a seminal role in the evolution of British experimental theatre. Though some People Show performances begin with scripts, these scripts serve mostly as starting points for devised, site-specific theatre by actors, musicians, poets, and artists. In 1969, they staged a performance at London's

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England ...

during which they invited passersby into a

telephone booth A telephone booth, telephone kiosk, telephone call box, telephone box or public call box is a tiny structure furnished with a payphone and designed for a telephone user's convenience; usually the user steps into the booth and closes the booth ...

to look at "dirty postcards", only to present them with "two sugar lumps... coloured with red ink or, alternatively, a bra stuffed with baked beans." The People Show has also toured internationally. During the early 1970s, they produced four shows at La MaMa Experimental Theatre in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. These included shows 39 and 44, both in 1972, and shows 51, 52, and 53, in 1973. Show 44 took place on 18 October 1972. Show 39 took place on 25 October 1972. Show 51 took place on 19 September 1973. Show 52 took place from 19 to 23 September 1973 and Show 52 took place from 26 to 30 September 1973.La MaMa Archives Digital Collections
"Promotional Flyer: 'The People Show' (1973)". Accessed May 14, 2018.
/ref> From 1982 to 2013, the company was based at People Show Studios, a former

church hall A church hall or parish hall is a room or building associated with a church, generally for community and charitable use.

Bethnal Green Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heath Road. By ...

. People Show continues to tour nationally, having produced 127 productions. The most recent production, "People Show 127: Hands Off", was produced at the Artsadmin space at Toynbee Hall. "Hands Off" introduced a new generation of People Show artists, and explored gaming to question who really controls the outcome. People Show is now based at the Brady Arts Centre in

Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...

. People Show had their fiftieth anniversary in 2016, and created a series of works in preparation. They then worked on show 128, produced in a crypt in

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...

, in collaboration with students from the

University of Roehampton The University of Roehampton, London, formerly Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, is a public university in the United Kingdom, situated on three major sites in Roehampton, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Roehampton was formerly an e ...

and the

Academy of Live and Recorded Arts The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA) was a British drama school. It had two sites: ALRA South on Wandsworth Common in south London and ALRA North in Wigan, Greater Manchester. It was founded in 1979 by director and actor Sorrel Carson w ...

. They then began creating a short film with longstanding People Show artists.

References

{{reflist

External links

People Show
(official website)
People Show
(official Facebook page)
The People Show's page on La MaMa Archives Digital Collections
Theatre companies in London Site-specific theatre