Boldly trauma-conscious and survivor-led theatre and participation arts for social change.
Introducing
RAT LAB
A professional development programme for theatre-makers who identify as experiencing or at risk of post-traumatic stress, who are trying to start theatre projects with the ambition of affecting change in a topic that matters to them.
Come take part in workshops run by our survivor artists to experiment with their project ideas!
Next session
led by
Claire and Alain:
Saturday 17th January
2-5pm
Old Diorama Arts Centre
201 Drummond Street, Regent's Place, London NW1 3FE
Following sessions:
28th February, 28th March, 25th April, 23rd May, 27th June, 19th July
Supported by Old Diorama Arts Centre and City Bridge Foundation
It can feel almost impossible to get artistic projects off the ground in this climate: from funding, to programming, to audience engagement, the cards are stacked against us higher than ever.
If you’re a survivor, the picture is even more extreme.
Everyone knows fundraising is exhausting - but what if you've experienced homelessness or poverty or spent too much of your life chasing up benefits applications, and asking for money feels like begging?
Everyone knows programmers aren't keen on taking risks at the moment - but what if you’ve been neglected your whole life and not getting any response to your e-mails makes you feel physically unsafe? What if someone wants your lived experience, but wants to do their own thing with it rather than valuing your artistic purpose?
Audiences are hard to build now that so many people have less money and free time. And when the people you’re trying to reach have historically been excluded from mainstream arts spaces, or are people who need to (and possibly don't want to) open their eyes to uncomfortable truths, even getting the message to them can be an Everest - let alone convincing them to come.
And that’s not even mentioning all the additional factors that come to bear with work inspired by lived experience.
How much of my true story do I want to bring?
How do I figure out how to bring other survivors on the journey?
How do I find collaborators who have the skill sets I need and will stick with me through the tough times?
Our founder Nell Hardy discovered these barriers the hard way when making her first couple of shows, and urgently wants to prevent other survivors from having to go that journey alone in the ways that she did.​
RAT LAB is a professional development programme for theatre-makers who experience post-traumatic stress, who are in the early stages of working on a theatre project that aims to create change in an area that matters to them.
Each year, 4 survivor theatre-makers will get:
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monthly coaching with Nell to work through the decisions and challenges that come from the process;
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monthly days together as a cohort with morning workshops on subjects chosen by the group, and afternoons dedicated to research and development sessions to expand on their initial creative ideas;
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we are aiming to provide an opportunity to present your ideas at whatever stage they are at by the end of the year to invited and public audiences: we are still fundraising and what form that will take remains to be seen.
We will invite the wider RAT community to participate in the monthly afternoon research and development sessions facilitated by the 4 theatre-makers - so that our 4 theatre-makers can benefit from the insight and contributions of other survivors, and so that survivors at many different stages of their creative and general lives can gain an insight into the sorts of processes that go into arts in activism.
We are treating this first year as a pilot, and over the first three months we are opening the whole day each month to any survivors who want to attend.
We will go through some introductory sessions on identifying what to consider when planning an arts in activism project, facilitation skills, and how to talk about your work.
We don't have all the answers and don't believe there is just one way to tackle any task or challenge: these sessions will be as much an opportunity for survivors to share ideas among each other as they are about passing on observations from our experiences of making work.
Meet our first cohort!
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Sahar Beg
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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.
