“I’m not gonna do anything. But I do want to make the world a better place…”

This honest admission from a Tea Party guest may ring true to most of our ears. The majority of us want to help others, be welcoming & feel welcomed ourselves but we don’t necessarily know what to do about this. But small acts of kindness do make a difference. So, we are also starting small, with cups of tea and chocolate digestives, in hope of starting a revolution.

Our new project, The Welcome Revolution, is much more than a performance – it’s a movement that advocates positivity, galvanises local communities and hopes to inspire people to make a change around them.

As part of the project we are hosting tea parties in and around London, intending eventually to tour them nationally. We invite the local area to share their ideas with us, and with each other, about what community means to them and their understanding of ‘welcome’. In a space full of arts, crafts & warmth, we hope to find out more about individual human experiences that inform all the nuanced attitudes toward the world around us. Central to our company is accessibility, diversity and making work that is not just for theatrical audiences, and these tea parties also allow us to make a dent in the barriers between these different worlds. We hope that our guests will leave these tea parties with a smile on their face, the knowledge that they can make a difference to the world and a desire to also spread hope and eliminate hate.

Whilst sharing a cuppa with guests in North London who told us how they bring people together by organising a local sewing club, they taught us how to cross-stitch a heart as we shared our newfound knowledge of origami flowers. It is this type of exchange that will contribute to the ongoing and important dialogue needed to bring people together.

The realities shared in the tea parties will inform our performance, in which we also tell stories of worlds in which revolutions of welcome are taking place.

Please join us for a cup of tea, see the show and be part of The Welcome Revolution.