There's No Place Like Home

A devised piece of verbatim theatre directed by Sinéad on the theme of eviction in the current economic recession in America. In collaboration with a cast of seventeen actors and a design team of seven on BA (Hons) Acting and BA (Hons) Theatre Practice courses at Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

There's No Place Like Home premiered at the Performance Studio in Central School of Speech and Drama on 4 December 2009.

'Home is an English word virtually impossible to translate into other tongues. No translation catches the associations, the mixture of memory and longing, the sense of security and autonomy and accessibility, the aroma of inclusiveness, of freedom from wariness, that cling to the word home... Home is a concept, not a place; it is a state of mind where self-definition starts; it is origins; the mix of time and place and smell and weather wherein one first realizes one is an original, perhaps like others, especially those one loves, but discrete, distinct, not to be copied. Home is where one first learned to be separate and it remains in the mind as the place where reunion, if it were ever to occur, would happen.'
(A. Bartlett Giamatti)

In 2009, over a period of three months, the company conducted interviews - in person, via skype, email or on the phone - with American citizens who lost their homes or whose homes were at risk of foreclosure due to the current economic crisis. Between October and December they created a show based on these interviews. The work of the company was assisted by the collaboration of playwright Tanika Gupta, director Catherine Alexander, lighting designer Nick Moran, sound designer Gregg Fisher, voice and dialect coaches Tara McAllister-Viel and Marina Tyndall, movement director Helen Heaslip, performer Lizzie Roper, projection designer Finn Ross, set designer Becs Andrews, cinematographer Dan Rack and sound designer Gareth Fry.

Directed by Sinéad Rushe
Assisted by John Montegrande with Jordan Dawes
Stage Management by Greg Sharman
Production Management by Tal Landsman
Stage/Costume Design by Rebecca Sian Hutchins
Sound Design by David Sharrock and Cristina De Risi
Lighting Design by Abigail Bates
Projection Design by Adam Young
Performed by: Fisayo Akinade, Nadia Balfe, Laura Dewey, Sarah French, Sara Green, Peter Hobday, Magnus McCullagh, Elizabeth Menabney, Peter Randall, Nicholas Rowe,
Cherrelle Skeete, Hormuzd Todiwala, Paula Videniece, Rhiannon Wallace, Miles Yekinni.