Daniel Kitson's one man show involving him narrating a story into 46 parts recorded on to 46 analogue machines. these, which are  in a huge pile at the back of the stage at the beginning of the show, are one after the other distributed about the stage and connected by Kitson to the power source - just in time for the next part of the story to start. Kitson spends the near two hours running between the table of machines at the back, laying connecting cables and waiting at the central down stage power desk for the cue to flick the switch onto the next device. Kitson warns us - though his autobigraphical narration in introduction and regular occourances - also recorded, that this could go wrong. some of the machines are very old, audible in the quality of sound when they play. at times the sound starts too low or high on one device and Kitson rewinds and starts that section of the story again. its funny, I knew nearly nothing about the show beforehand, (my lovely mum booked it on a whim) and had either of us been told that we would sit in a dark warm theatre for two hours with just the narrated story by a man with an almost monotone voice i don't think i would have been enthused. well im blooming glad I didnt know that as it was beautiful. The story itself, wooven of two seperate narratives involving tape recorders and lonesome individuals - quite how Kitson paints himself is, touching, tense, elequent and funny. The stakes were high - we knew it could go wrong  at any moment - one of the machines could fail at any point. these high stakes meant we, the audience were invested in what was happening- we willed the machines to work, and when there was a wobble the tension was even audiable from the audience - like watching a tennis match. What made it really rather special was Kitson's drole tones informing us that all of these machines, would, after the few shows, be dispursed back in the multiple means that they had come to him - through ebay, gumtree, freecycle, charity shops, antique shops, markets, bootsales and house clearances. Thus the story its ints entiterity in this form is only for these few performances, experienced and still existing only in the memories of the few hundred people who went to the show. The beauty of this struck me...

The Met have announced plans to make 'rough sleeping' a crime in 6 London boroughs... Operation Encompass will be in effect in Camden, Islington, Lambeth, Southwark and Westminster, alongside Croydon....
We are opposed to this latest attack on Homeless people and will protest at City Hall to tell Boris  Johnson and the GLA to call off this hideous campaign criminalising some of the most vulnerable people in our city... Already there have been arrests of people whose only crime is to be homeless due to the lack of Shelter spaces and suitable accomodation...
We ask people to support our opposition by attending and circulating the information amongst their networks and groups...

The biggest crime of all is the fact that people are homeless today.... 

London Assembly (Mayor's Question Time)
Wednesday 26 February 2014 10.00 am -

for info etc: beatonthestreet @gmail.com
07585973462
We also plan local actions in each of the boroughs affected... details to follow
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/714164025295447/723883994323450/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity

Protest today outside City hall for Mayor Question time, to challenge Boris' plans to make it a crime to sleep rough in 6 of london's wealthiest boroughs. despite the large facebook support - 550 people 'going' on the facebook event page, the gathering was substantially smaller, maybe 70 people max. Many were homeless people who slept outside city hall last night in protest before todays action.  the gathering made up for lack of numbers in feeling, anger, determination and commitment to challenegng this attempt at social cleansing, all with a smile - though a threatening one. 

what makes someone happy?
what makes someone living on the street happy?
what makes an executive of a company happy? 
what makes an ambulance workier happy?
what makes a policeman happy?
what makes an audience member happy?
Can  people with different priorities be made happy by the same thing?

just booked to see this, about homeless young people in lonodn. thank you very much Keri for the recommendation. 
 http://theshed.nationaltheatre.org.uk/events/home-aug-sep-2013#.UwOA50J_uDo

a friend of mine who volunteers with a homeless charity in brighton told me something the otherday which utterly horrified me. Some of the poeple he works with used to be on the streets in London. in the run up to the 2012 olympics, in an effort to clean up the streets,  many homeless people were offered a £30 1 WAY ticket to Brighton. many took it. 

there is very little in the way of homeless shelters in brighoton in as most have had to close due to lack of funding. there is huge numbers of people sleeping rough, there for a number of reasons. many with mental health issues, many more just with no where else to go. 

the amount of people sleeping rough has increased 4 fold since the tories came to power. this is an epidemic. and its a totally stopable. if only we'd stop giving money to private landlords and create affordable housing and shelter and support for those who need it. 

absolutely outrageous that the Met have annouced that  sleeping rough will become  a crime in 6 london boroughs (the wealthiest ones..suprise suprise) and croydon. As if in any possible way that is going to help those vulnerable people on the street. the lack of collaboration between the police, social services and HUGE cuts to welfare mean that there are so very few shelters to take rough sleepers at all. Who is going to benefit from this law? being put in the cells night after night isnt good for those rough sleepers, nor is it good for the police to spend their time doing so (and if you want to get all right wing rhetoric on it - it aint a good way to spend tax payers money).  I shall be attending protest at City Hall on wednesday 26th Feb, 10 am, to let the GLA and Boris know that we are not going to let this sort of social cleansing take place..come too! 
this is a link to good article. good to get that out. http://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2014/02/croydon-met-police-targeting-homeless-in-new-initiative/