Truth to Power Café

Truth to Power Café is conceived as an international platform for celebrating the power of free speech and political activism as an hour long performance event combining text, poetry, music, image and participants. It is hosted by its creator Jeremy Goldstein. During the course of the show Jeremy invites people of all ages, beliefs and backgrounds to respond to the question “Who has power over you and what would you say to them?” before a live audience. The participants are recruited in advance via invite and open-call. This work will be a gathering of community and up to ten participants from Zagreb will take part in this performance.

Speaking truth to power has its origins in the anti-war movement, but in this era of post-truth, alternative fact and fake-news, it is widely accepted to mean saying something to those in authority or position of trust who don’t want to hear. Is it to your parents, a sibling, politician, lover, landlord, neighbour, religious leader, boss, banker, carer, or simply your best friend? It’s time to tell them the truth before it’s too late.

Jeremy is a queer producer, writer and performer and an HIV+ activist with ACT UP London. His work has been described as ‘an evocative theatrical wonderland’ (Guardian). In 2000, he founded London Artists Projects, commissioning and producing shows with many celebrated artists winning awards including Evening Standard, Fringe First, h.Club, London Cabaret and BBC Audio Drama. In 2012 he was named in Time Out as among the 100 most influential people in UK culture for ‘proving political theatre can be fun and outrageous’. He was staged shows with a number of queer icons including Penny Arcade, Bette Bourne, Mark Ravenhill and Marc Almond.

Creator and Host: Jeremy Goldstein
Verse: Henry Woolf
Director: Jen Heyes
Photography: Sarah Hickson
Banners: Ed Hall
Music: David Bowie and Sven Ratzke