Jeremy Goldstein has made an art of speaking truth to power.

In this Q&A with Smriti from ActNow Theatre, Jeremy talks about bringing the show to Adelaide, why the performances can feel profoundly cathartic for participants and audiences alike, and what drives him personally to invest in this work. And if you’re thinking of getting up on that stage? He has some great advice for you!

*Jeremy Goldstein. Photograph by Graham Denholm.*

You’re bringing Truth to Power Café to Adelaide! Could you tell us about the production?

I’m proud to say our Adelaide Festival Centre event on 17th September will be Truth to Power Cafe’s 40th birthday performance. Eight people from within the ActNow community will join me in the show, and together we will respond to the question at the heart of the work: ‘who has power over you and what do you want to say to them?’

The show itself is a 60-minute interdisciplinary performance event combining memoir, image, film, poetry, music and stories from participants speaking passionately from the truth of their lived experience in response to the question.

We started the project in 2016 as a pre-show event for Penny Arcade’s ‘Longing Lasts Longer’ at Soho Theatre in London. Twenty-four Londoners turned up over four nights and the idea grew organically from there. Five years on, we’ve staged 39 performances in 6 countries with over 400 participants.

I’m also cast as a participant. I talk of the power my late father Mick Goldstein had over me when he was alive. He was a member of the Hackney Gang – a group of six friends that included the Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, and the actor and poet Henry Woolf, with whom I’ve co-created the show which is directed by Jen Heyes.

Ultimately, the show has become a love letter to the memory of my father Mick, and his friends of sixty years Henry Woolf and Harold Pinter. Over the years, they held firm in their belief in an independent media, and speaking truth to power. They remained firmly on the side of the occupied, the disempowered and their allies. It is these people we invite to appear in the show.

You’ve reflected on how powerful this experience can be for participants and Ruth Melville Research even published a 34 page Impact Study with 88 participants. What for you were the key findings? How does it reflect what you see play out on stage during performances?

At the end of 2018, we’d had a lot of anecdotal feedback from participants telling us the experience was life-affirming and empowering, but we didn’t have any evidence to support it. In 2019 we raised some money from Arts Council England to commission an independent Impact Study from Ruth Melville Research in the UK.

The research was published last year. It found that participants experienced a positive change in their wellbeing from taking part, and that participants took steps to change their lives when dealing with power, and that some went on to empower and to help others. It was immensely gratifying to know that the project is just as fulfilling to those taking part as it is for us to produce.

It’s transformative and a lovely thing to be able to put in front of an audience.

Personally, why do you choose to do this work? And do you find something new to inspire you with every performance?

As a theatre artist and producer, I’ve championed underrepresented voices and new forms of artistic and political expression for over three decades. I’m also a long time HIV+ activist with ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power). ACT UP formed in response to the AIDS/HIV epidemic of the late 1980’s. They became one of the most successful campaign groups of all time, proving beyond doubt that community activism and direct action works. People really do have the power.

On a more personal level, I’ve learnt that everyone (including me!) has their own unique and inspiring story to tell, and because we have different participants in the show every night, I’m forever learning and meeting new people. It’s never uninteresting.

In a time when many of us feel helpless and overwhelmed, why is speaking truth to power important?

We live in the post-truth age of the demagogue where fake-news is the new norm. In politics, the oppressed often have to fight for the right to simply say what they are experiencing, and in personal relationships that artificial barrier is also in place. If you have an approach to allowing the conversation to happen, then the chances of change occurring are much higher.

Even though speaking truth to power is a non-violent means of conflict resolution, doing so, can put you at risk, so it takes courage. Build up a survival kit of fact, friendship, and allies. Make sure you’re on solid ground and work with people you can trust. Read Dictatorship to Democracy – A Conceptual Framework for Liberation by Gene Sharp, which includes 198 Methods of Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion. There is always something we can do.

You’ve had so many people stand up and find their courage through these performances. Do you see themes and concerns that tie together these diverse people?

The nature of the question is conceived to challenge notions of power and give a voice to people who don’t normally have a chance to speak out. People from marginalised communities tend to want to talk about progressive change, whereas those with privilege and power, tend to want to maintain the status quo and have more power.

Above and beyond the politics, it’s often the more personal stories that I find the most effecting, especially from first time speakers.

We document everyone taking part in the project with photo portraits. The portraits aim to capture empathetic images of participants which add poignancy to their personal testimonies. We use the photos in the show itself and upload them to our online archive.

How has the pandemic affected the monologues you hear and how has it shaped the performance itself?

I’m a big believer in visibility and representation, so as lockdown took hold, I started to think how we as artists could contribute to community renewal in the connected space of theatre, live and online.

We took the view that nothing, not even COVID-19 could stop us from being in each other’s thoughts and imaginations; and the telling of true stories about our lives, was about to become more urgent and important than ever.

Our immediate response to the crisis, was to set up a digital platform. Since we went live with the platform in April 2020, we’ve published 80 videos which have been viewed over 100,000 times on Facebook alone.

From the digital platform we were asked to create a digital theatre adaptation of the live show with Montgomery College Cultural Arts Centre in Maryland USA. In the run up to last year’s US elections we were able to cast 10 participants via zoom from within a 10 mile radius to the White House. I’m context driven so it was a tremendously exciting project to do at a very particular moment in time. The piece streamed from the US on 10th October 2020, and within a week was picked up by Bloomsbury Festival in London and Power Play Festival in Singapore.

This year we’ve been able to recreate the digital project with thirty participants from Bunjil Place in the City of Casey in Narre Warren. This time we were able to film participants live on location in a state of the art 800 seat theatre to create a cinematic edition of the show. This will launch the Ageing Positively Festival on 1st October and be available on-demand as part of Melbourne Fringe Arts Festival.

What advice do you have for those considering applying for this round in Adelaide? What do you believe makes for the most powerful talks?

Taking part is an opportunity to express your true self, and say what you’ve always wanted to say, so put any fears you might have to one side, and think about what this really means to you in the context of speaking your truth to power.

We encourage everyone to speak from the truth of their lived experience. Is what you want to say to a person, organisation or even a policy, or something you’ve experienced? Get straight to the point and don’t feel you have to apologise or explain yourself.

To take part all you need to do is sign up via our website with 100 words on who you are and what you want to say in response to the question.

Once I receive your submission I’ll be in touch to talk it through, and explore ways we can expand your response to a 500 word text. If you end up in the show, feel free to read your text from your phone or the page, so there’s no need to memorise. It’s very relaxed, in that respect.

As we say at the end of the show…

BLOW OUR TRUMPETS ANGELS!!

To find out more about the project and how you can take part join us and Jeremy on 5th August at 6:30pm for a zoom info session - register here.

Truth to Power Café will be presented at Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre on 17th September in association with ActNow Theatre and Replay Creative.

Tickets are $25/$20 and can be booked via this link

Q&A with Jeremy Goldstein, creator of The Truth to Power Café!