1884 review – interactive theatre game invites the neighbours over to resist fascism

Shoreditch Town Hall, London
Talk of street parties, barbecues and book clubs gives way to politics in this work about authoritarianism, colonialism and how history gets rewritten

The historical significance of the year 1884 is not explained at the beginning of this piece of game theatre. The atmosphere is neighbourly as we settle into groups around purpose-built model homes in a garden community on the fictional Wilhelm Street.

Upon friendly instruction, we become families making the homes our own. There is talk of street parties, barbecues and book clubs. But slowly, through a series of local council announcements, the rules of the community change, first to standardise our new abodes and then to curtail our freedoms in them.