Theatre Témoin's mask and puppetry show The Marked is heading for Northern Stage on 31 March as part of Moving Parts, the Newcastle Puppetry Festival. The show is touring the UK's regional homeless 'hotspots', using mask, puppetry and physical theatre to steer audiences through a haunting, mystical world inspired by real-life stories of homelessness.
As a boy, Jack lived in a world of monsters and invisible guardians as he fought to protect the people he loved. Now grown up, his life on the streets of London is less fantastical. But when a ghost from his past turns up, Jack must harness the power of forgotten myths to defeat her.
At its heart, The Marked is a story about the link between trauma in childhood and homelessness in adulthood, exploring the vivid internal landscapes that we create and discover through pain and healing.
Theatre Témoin has an engagement-centred approach to devising, working with community partners and consultants at every stage of the process and The Marked was developed alongside community consultants with experience of homelessness from St Mungo’s Recovery College and Cardboard Citizens, who participated in mask theatre workshops.
Devising Director Ailin Conant commented, “while researching The Marked and listening to the stories of people experiencing homelessness, it became increasingly clear to me that for some people fantastical beliefs are a matter of urgency, of vital necessity. When you have lived through powerful experiences, you need an equally powerful language and framework to describe them.”
It was developed as a co-production with Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, with support from The Wellcome Trust, Arts Council England, Awards for All, The Pleasance Islington, Queen Mary University of London and Camden People’s Theatre.
In 2016, Government street counts estimated around 4,134 people sleeping rough on any one night across England. Since 2010, homelessness has increased nationwide by 55%, with an unprecedented 100% increase in rough sleepers in London.