The theatre company Kandinsky, having previously tackled suicide and the stigmas surrounding mental illness, turns its attention to the housing crisis in this intricate 80-minute piece. Set in and around an East London tower block, Trap Street pictures a single-parent family across more than half a century of dramatic social change.
The fictional Austen Estate was a hive of vigorous activity when built, but it’s declined because of crime, apathy and patchy maintenance. Now the wrecking ball awaits, with just a few residents clinging on obstinately.
Multi-tasking actors Amelda Brown, Danusia Samal and Hamish MacDougall trace this story of decline, with clever use of video enhancing the sense of documentary authenticity and Zac Gvirtzman's live music accentuating the jumpy, fractured texture.
While creators Lauren Mooney and James Yeatman don’t labour their political points, this is a timely critique of both the flawed utopianism of the Sixties and the chimera of ‘affordable housing’. Angry yet humane, it’s intended not as a definitive statement about the fraying of urban communities, but as a spur for further debate.
Until March 31
