Truth to Power Café - Blacktown Arts

Blacktown Arts and London Artists Projects present Truth to Power Café. Powerful storytelling from the people of our city.

Online Performances

Jeremy Goldstein’s Truth to Power Café is a profound theatrical reflection on loss hope and resistance.

This internationally-acclaimed digital theatre event is told through memoir, poetry, image, music and film. It is a unique meditation on time, place and community as participants from Blacktown and beyond speak passionately from the truth of their lived experience, in response to the question ‘who has power over you and what do you want to say to them?’

Speaking truth to power is a non-violent means of conflict resolution, the origins of which lie in the anti-war movement. In our era of post-truth, alternative fact and fake-news, speaking truth to power is widely accepted to mean saying something to those in a position of trust who don’t want to hear it.

Is it to your parents, a sibling, politician, lover, landlord, neighbour, religious leader, boss, banker, or simply your best friend? It’s time to tell them the truth, before it’s too late.

Truth to Power Café is inspired by the political and philosophical beliefs of Nobel prize winning playwright Harold Pinter and his Hackney Gang.

“A priceless repository of living social history, wit, wisdom and defiance” Attitude

“The revolutionary potential of theatre at its simplest and most direct” Guardian

“A truly global show that knows no borders…Truth to Power Café is part-theatrical performance, part memoir, part impassioned activism” Time Out Sydney

Truth to Power Café is a London Artists Projects production developed with theatre director Jen Heyes and Harold Pinter Archive at the British Library London; Theatre in the Mill Bradford; Soho Theatre London; Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Australia; and Leeuwarden European Capital of Culture in The Netherlands.

Performance dates and times

Thursday 23 September, 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Friday 24 September, 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Read the program here

Community Participants
Thursday 23 September

Subini Hyde

Rachael Jacobs

Yumi Lee

Venessa Possum

Wilfred Roach

Rebecca Sciroli

Rey Vargas

Friday 24 September

Abaker Athum

Deej Aye

Keith Quayle

Marina Robins

Kate Rowe

Lea Simic

Jacinta Tobin

The duration of each performance is approximately 50 minutes. We will be in touch closer to the date with instructions on how to watch the live performances. Please note that both performances will be live captioned. Performances may contain coarse language, stories of lived experience that include trauma, polarising political stances and adult themes.

We recommend online performances for audiences age 14+.