Coming up: A night at the Truth to Power Cafe

WHO has power over you? And what do you want to say to them? Step inside the Truth to Power Cafe, and you might just have a chance to share it with the world...

A theatrical project that has crossed continents and been performed across the UK, Europe and Australia, Truth to Power Cafe begins with the experiences of performer Jeremy Goldstein before turning into something completely different for each show, by opening it up to the experience of (seemingly, at least) ordinary audience members.

It is coming to Liverpool and Ormskirk’s Edge Hill Arts Centre this November, with a major local link in the form of director Jen Heyes.

Jen’s work in Liverpool over the years has included Treasured, a massive immersive pieceabout the Titanic disaster that took over the Anglican Cathedral in 2012; Tony Teardrop, a site-specific exploration of homelessness at the Bombed-Out Church, and home-grown hit Epstein: The Man Who Made The Beatles.

It was the latter - which transferred down to the West End from the Epstein in 2012 with Andrew Lancel in the title role - that caused her path to cross with Goldstein. He saw the show and the pair struck up a conversation, and eventually, collaboration.

Truth to Power Cafe is described as "an international performance event mixing memoir, image, poetry, music, and live spontaneous testimony from participants speaking their truth to power in response to the question: 'who has power over you and what do you want to say to them?'"

Jeremy Goldstein’s father Mick was one of Harold Pinter’s ‘Hackney Gang’, a lifelong group of friends whose close-knit relationships live on through letters that are now archived in the British Library.

He uses the first half of the show to work through their unhappy father/ son relationship and what he uncovered in those letters after his death. And while Truth to Power Café begins with this story, it goes on to open up to ten members of the public, local to every show. The ten work with the team ahead of time before taking to the stage to speak their own truth, unscripted, in their own words.

More than 200 people have taken part so far, using the platform to address issues from their lives that, crucially, they have come to terms with and are willing to confront in front of an audience.

“When it first started we said it was a way of transforming lives, and that seems extreme but it really has,” Jen Heyes says. “The way people have got involved in the process really makes a big change in their life.”

As part of the project, those who take part are photographed for an online gallery, and these powerful portraits, by photographer Sarah Hickson, can be seen on the Truth to Power Café website.

“It’s areally profound, extraordinary experience,” Jen says. “People from all walks oflife have taken part - I believe what we are doing is gathering the voices ofhumanity at this time. The legacy of this is huge.”

They have been working on Truth to Power Café since 2016, and see such interactive work, actively involving its audience and starting meaningful conversations, is exactly where theatre should be headed.

“You couldn’t write a lot of this,” Jen says. “To see participants from all different backgrounds, class, ages standing on stage and being comfortable to express themselves in a non- judgemental way is fantastic.”

The concept of speaking truth to power has roots in the anti-war movement and, needless to say, is as important now as its ever been.

“People talk about the power of theatre at key political and historical moments, and theatre has risen up to create work to challenge the status quo and reflect what people are thinking,” says Jen. “That these participants are not professional, there is a great power in that. It creates an awareness and opens up conversations.”

For Jen, Truth to Power Cafe is a continuation of her body of work as a whole, "collecting stories from people, some on the edge of society like in Tony Teardrop and others who may not be,” she says.

“It’s moving - not just emotionally, but in the way it there will be a story you connect with or identify with. People will get in touch to say how it has changed them having the opportunity to speak truth to power, how it has shifted something in themselves. It can be transformative in a positive way.”

Truth to Power Cafe comes to Ormskirk's Edge Hill Arts Centre on Friday, November 15; before that on November 14 is the chance to see Spider Love, a work-in-progress reading of a new play created by Jeremy Goldstein from an original script by his father, directed by Jen Heyes and with verse by Henry Woolf, the last surviving member of the Hackney Gang.

It goes on to Liverpool's Unity Theatre on Saturday, November 16. To apply to take part in either performance, visit the Truth to Power Cafe website.