People Show 118

In 2007, as part of my university work placement training, I was working for the London-based theatre People Show on their 118th touring show, celebrating the group's 40th birthday.

Founded in 1966, People Show is the longest-running experimental theatre company in the UK. In 2016, the group celebrated their 50th anniversary at the Toynbee Studios with live performances, films, music, talks and a retrospective exhibition featuring previously unseen material from People Show's extensive archive. In 2024, they created their 148th project, "148: SNEEZE", which won awards at Monza Film Festival, Independent Horror Movie Awards and Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival.

The company is known for working without an artistic director which means that people within the group are up for playing different roles, therefore a sound designer can at the same time play a role of a sound engineer and a carpenter; a production manager might perform in the show etc. There are no strict rules in People Show company but what is always there is a real creative energy and a positive attitude towards everything.

In 2006, People Show celebrated their 40th birthday with a 118th show they performed in London. In 2007, the group were taking the show on tour (which included Brighton, Liverpool and Manchester) so the scenery used the previous year had to be rebuilt and reconstructed in a way that was light and portable. That is when I joined the team - I became an assistant carpenter and spent five weeks helping build big parts of the scenery (windows, walls, steel decks etc.) as well as props (decorations inside the bus which was one of the three performance spaces; boxes for presents and piñatas – heads of clowns that had sweets inside and were to be smashed at the end of each show). The time I spent in People Show Studios on Pollard Row was truly intense but I have learned a lot both in terms of technical skills as well as about devising and making a show within an alternative theatre company.

Lynn Gardner wrote for the Guardian: "Still crazy after all these years, the People Show takes to the road once more in celebration of the company's 40th birthday. The company's longevity is matched by its creativity and a willingness to try anything, and the fact that its work always seems to be driven by its creator's own singular and maverick vision. This piece uses live music and multimedia imagery in a promenade performance, featuring dancing boxers, melancholy babies, a washed up comic and a clown. Here's to the next 40 years."

"A National Treasure" – The Independent
"People Show is essential. They own this lane of the theatre" – Naomi Obeng, Exeunt
"Theatre without People Show would be like music without Rock 'n’ Roll” – Sam Shepherd
“50 years of eccentricity, humour and camaraderie” – A Younger Theatre
"A thing of absolute beauty" – Amanda Hadingue
"The company's longevity is matched by its creativity and willingness to try anything" –Lyn Gardner