This is Not a Safe Place
Camden People’s Theatre,  London

LIVERPUDLIAN poet and performer Jackie Hagan tries to put her audience at ease. It’s the opening night of the Common People festival showcasing working-class theatre makers and discussions on class and the arts sector.

[[{"fid":"3014","view_mode":"inlinefull","fields":{"format":"inlinefull","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Jackie Hagan","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlinefull","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Jackie Hagan","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"alt":"Jackie Hagan","class":"media-element file-inlinefull","data-delta":"1"}}]]“Estate people think that middle-class people have had everything on a plate,” she says. But she assures the audience that she knows it’s not always true. “I know that middle-class people have problems too. I know that because I’ve slept with a lot of you.”

Hagan is funny and sensitive and her one-woman show This is Not a Safe Place is both moving and poignant, if that’s not too middle class a word. She interviewed 80 people at the hard end of Britain’s austerity economy and their words are heard in between her own anecdotes, thoughts and poetry. Her props are three tall open-shelf units of bric a brac that when turned round become high-rise council blocks.