Clean Break Theatre Company celebrates 40th anniversary with live exhibition
Hattie Fisk
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
Celebrating four decades of ground-breaking theatre focused on women’s experience of the criminal justice system, Clean Break Theatre Company is launching free virtual events and a new live exhibition: ‘I am a theatre’.
Taking place at Swiss Cottage Gallery in Camden from 24 June – 31 July, the live exhibition will feature previously unseen archival material; original scripts, photography and artwork from Clean Break’s plays; hand-written letters and correspondence from their founders, and more.
Inspired by the 2019 production of Sweatbox, which was set inside a decommissioned prison van, artist Miriam Nabarro will also produce an installation for the exhibition which will be reimagined for the gallery space.
The celebrations also span a range of digital events, including a webinar with Clean Break trustee and award-winning playwright Winsome Pinnock, who is set to speak about creating her 1996 play Mules. There will also be a workshop on creating with archives, led by artist Paula Varjack; an online screening of co-founder Jacqueline Holborough’s play Killers; a re-imagining of Voices from Prison, originally performed by Clean Break in 1987.
Alongside the exhibition, Clean Break is launching a digital timeline on its website, providing unlimited access to archival material on the history of the theatre company for virtual audiences.
Jacqueline Holborough and Jennifer Hicks, co-founders of Clean Break, said: ‘We were dreaming big in 1979, but in our wildest dreams and furthest travels we could not have envisaged the brilliant organisation that Clean Break has become thanks to the talent, love and sheer determination of so many magnificent women.’
Alison Frater, chair of Clean Break said: ‘Since the beginning, Clean Break's advocacy through theatre and member support has highlighted the policy perversity of imprisoning women – influencing a consensus by successive governments to reduce the rate of incarceration.
‘The announcement of 500 new prison places for women, taking money from much needed community services and the failure to introduce measures to reduce violence against women and girls (yet removing the right to protest) in the draconian Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, demonstrates that its work is still very much needed.’
'I am a theatre' – 40 years of Clean Break is available to attend for free. Booking for the exhibition, and virtual events is available on Clean Break’s website.