The Help

I wasn't particularly looking forward to seeing this production, i can't even sum up why?
I enjoyed forum theatre work that we have done in class and had never seen a live piece of theatre performed in this way, so really i should have been more interested in it than i was. However by the end i was completely captivated by how it was used and what settings it could be used in.

I like forum theatre because i feel that it can be used in so many ways to help show lives and stories of people and make a whole audience think. As a society i know how closed off we are, how judgemental and also how two faced we are. I would love to take a piece of theatre like this to some of the places i have travelled and lived and to people in this country who are so narrow minded to what the world outside there little life/world is like.

After the show Terri did a Q&A session i was amazed that people of my age were so closed off to what it's like to be homeless and how surprised they were to find out about homeless people, such as how much a hostel costs.

I felt very privileged to know what i know and to have seen what i have seen i guess i was the narrow minded person thinking at everyone would know. I haven't been homeless but i have lived in places that have no running water and no electricity and no bed and home comforts and though it was hard it was probably when i felt most free...but then reality kicks in of how much we take for granted.

The piece that Card bored Citz performed was very well structured, each characters story was very sad and very hard to take in. I wish we would have been able to look at all the situations as i felt the reason that the majority of people chose Rowena's story was actually because they thought hers was more interesting...if we would have explored the other two i think we could have seen just how deep they were. I actually felt (maybe because i want to work in a therapy area) that Charlies story would have been interesting as i think people would have thought that story was allot easier to get out of than Rowena's...i wondered how many of the audience felt shocked and upset by his story!

After the show a couple of us stayed and went to the SU with the cast...it was fantastic to talk to all the actors about there own story and get feedback from them, Peoples stores interest me so much and i could listen to people all day talk about there experiences and life stories. I like the rawness and find the truth so refreshing. Myself and Bex got talking to Alix, she is a drama therapist and one of the actors in the show. She was really lovely and very helpful she even took my number and told me she was going to put me in touch with someone she knew at Felthem prison who could help with questions and possibly even a placement for community theatre. I thought this was very nice of her, but there has been so many time's when people have promised to help or contact me and never got back in touch (maybe that's more of a hint to me!) But the next morning she called and gave me a number to call...i haven't had the time yet but certainly will be following the call up.

I think one thing that everyone should learn about people in this world is that not everyone has it easy, you can never judge a book by it's cover and your circumstances are not who you are but what helped you become you!

Gosh that was very deep...all in all i loved 'THE HELP' and learnt allot more than what was on the surface of the show!