‘As soon as people hear our postcode, we get labelled. That is the hardest thing living on the estate – that label.’ 

A powerful new verbatim play foregrounding the voices of a community fighting to be heard.   

A retired ballerina finds herself suddenly homeless. At university, a youth worker struggles against stereotypes. Resident ‘007’ can’t get the council to listen to them, and NJ dreams of being allowed to play the African Drums. 

Putting the voices from Islington’s Andover Estate centre stage, The Talking Drum is a captivating portrait of a vast and diverse neighbourhood.  

A blend of theatre, grassroots storytelling and digital media, the interwoven stories spanning more than 50 years offer an urgent and deeply personal counter-narrative to decades of negative media portrayal. The production explodes assumptions about class and identity to ask: what does community mean to residents now? 

Director - Tony Graham Designer - Rachana Jadhav Sound Designer - Tate Hingorani-Short Lighting Designer - Jodie Underwood producer - Ellen Harris Production Manager - Lewis Champney Stage Manager - Kal Chapman

Photography - Jake Bush