Amidst austerity and cultural spaces disappearing, Ghost Town follows a group of artists, musicians and small business owners - struggling to hold onto cultural and community spaces in a rapidly gentrifying city. Inspired by a protest song sharing the same name, the puppet show unearths its continued relevance today.
The cast is made up of puppet animals, often considered city pests or vermin, who navigate the closure of a vital community hub - a rare bright spot in an otherwise culturally desolate urban landscape. As the space is bought out by a group of entrepeneurial newcomers, the show explores the repurcussions on the existing community.
Partially inspired by the 1980s song Ghost Town by The Special’s, the song serves as both a musical and narrative thread throughout the show. The Special’s spoke of the urban decay, deindustrialisation and unemploymenet issues experienced in inner cities at the time, and how these issues directly affected arts, music and cultural institutions. This production examines the symbiotic relationship between ex-industrial cities and their artistic communities, raising questions about the cycles of insecurity experienced by the occupants of these spaces, and also the responsibilities of young creatives as early agents or signalers of gentrification.
Created by Tanguy Pitavy, Dora Heller Russell and Lucy Hodge-Sellers.
Performed by Luana Soto Aguerrevere, Reyes Lachonado, Bea Masters, Mario Nijenhuis.
Recordings from meetings organised by Circuit of Commons. Live foley art by Ilse van Dijk and
Leonor Peereboom. Music by Folk Punk Takeover. Lighting by Tabby Flynn. Sound by Michael Strebel.