Introducing our first RAT LAB cohort, 25-26!

We are over the moon to be supporting these four spectacular survivor theatre artists as the first ever cohort of our new professional development programme, RAT LAB. All four have been regulars with RAT ever since we started core group sessions, and have brought distinct and invaluable things to us as we have worked out what and who we are - so it feels really fitting to be walking alongside them as they start developing arts projects that aim to have an impact on issues that matter to them.

Here they are, in their own words:

Sahar Beg

I am a psychotherapist and clinical supervisor, and I often use creative arts and theatre in my therapy work.

My approach brings together storytelling, trauma healing, and faith. I use narrative tools, theatre-based reflection, movement, voice work, and culturally aware methods to help people understand their experiences and reconnect with themselves and their communities.

My work focuses on resilience, belonging, and the quieter ways people cope, survive, and rebuild after emotional hurt.

My current project is a research and development piece exploring domestic abuse, violence, and sexual abuse, with a main focus on spiritual abuse.

The aim is to understand how spiritual abuse connects with, and often sits underneath or alongside, other forms of harm. Many people experience these abuses together, and spiritual abuse can shape how individuals see themselves, their relationships, and their sense of safety.

I will be using art, movement, voice, and theatre within therapeutic approaches to explore and express these experiences. The project also brings together trauma-informed psychology, Islamic spiritual ideas, and creative arts-based exercises. It is for people of any or no faith, as well as for therapists and community leaders who want creative and accessible ways to support emotional healing.

For me RAT is the right organisation to support this work because of its commitment to socially engaged arts and its belief that creative practice can support both personal and collective healing. Their values match the project’s aim to bring art, care, and community together.

Alain English

I am a poet, actor and autism trainer and I live and work in Greater London.

The project I am working on with RAT is a trilogy of performance poems with the working title of 'Archean'. I would like to have the poems performed onstage either individually or by a group of people. 

The poems are entitled individually as 'West Neuk', 'Glenside' and 'Archean'.

Each poem has interlinked stories with themes of bullying, toxic masculinity, consanguinity and the corruption that goes to the core of modern life. It is about the trauma that both connects and affects all of us in one way or the other and that nothing exists in isolation.

These poems as I am writing them are both deeply personal and yet have resonance with society as a whole. They relate to things that people talk about, but also what they are afraid to talk about.

I am working with RAT on this project, having established a strong artistic connection with them over the past year and a half, and I believe with the guidance of Nell and the others I will be able to get the best out of this project.

Lisa Harbron

I am a multidisciplinary artist who expresses herself through acting, theatre-making, poetry, photography, film and general foolery.

As a neurosparkly complex trauma survivor, I use art for activism and self-empowerment; as tools for reclaiming our own narrative.

I delight in finding humour in the darkest of places, to speak the unspeakable. 

I sometimes identify as a Starfish, other times I speak through my alter ego, The Sickness Guru. I will be building upon these worlds during my tenure at RAT Lab.

I didn’t know there was anyone else like me until I attended the first core group session at RAT. RAT offers me a brave space to create that not only encourages me to unmask, but is willing and able to support me when I do so.

Claire Reay

I am a multi- and inter-disciplinary artist whose practice is hard to pin down.

I am an observer and a collector of the eclectic. Be that hobbies, facts, textures or experiences; my curiosity is the guide for all that I do.

As an activist, I want to call people in rather than out, and I believe strongly in the power of community to bring about change.

Commonalities is a direct challenge to the post-Brexit culture of division and opposition. By encouraging people to be curious about finding unexpected connections, I hope to plant seeds that blossom into meaningful relationships and a sense of belonging.

RAT is the perfect home for this project, as its commitment to radical inclusivity mirrors the gathering of disparate people that Commonalities aspires to achieve.

RAT LAB offers the kind of structured support and encouragement that I require as a mid-life emerging artist with multiple marginalised identities.

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At RAT LAB afternoon sessions each month, two of these brilliant people will run a workshop for the rest of the community to build on a creative idea they are exploring towards the development of their projects. This is your chance to see how different survivor artists work, get an insight into theatre- and activist art-making processes, and contribute to the building of these extraordinary ideas.

Our next session is on Monday 15th December, 2-5pm, with Sahar and Lisa running the sessions. Don't miss out - and remember to sign up to our newsletter so you never miss a memo!