REPORTAGE: 24 Stories - The Dancehouse Theatre, Manchester.

In June last year one of the greatest tragedies on British soil occurred when Grenfell Tower in London went up in flames. Sadly many people lost their lives and a whole community was damaged. But how do you offer hope to those who have lost everything? Through the power of social media!

Shortly after the disaster Paul Jenkins spoke with Rhona Martin; a woman who suffered from post-traumatic stress and was worried about the survivors. Kathy Burke (of Harry Enfield, and Gimme Gimme Gimme fame) saw a tweet Jenkins had posted. Support in the form of clothing and food was overwhelming, but what about the psychological impact on the people who used to call Grenfell their home? Jenkins and Martin suggested a book called 24 Stories. As there were 24 storeys in the Grenfell building there was a short story for every floor. 12 of the stories were written by well-known published authors and 12 were written by less well-known writers. Burke then edited the book. 

At the Dancehouse we were fortunate to be joined by John Mitchinson (the editor of Unbound - who published the book), two of the writers of the book; Nina Stibble and Mike Gayle. and Burke was also in attendance to read stories of the less well-known authors. Given the subject matter it would have been very easy to write about the tragedy and how if affected the residents, instead the theme of the book was about hope and community. All the stories dealt with this theme. 

When Unbound announced they were looking for writers to submit stories for this book they were inundated with submissions. They had over 500 authors submit stories and it was a tough job from there to whittle them down. During the course of the evening Burke read ‘Free Skater’ by Susan E Barsby and ‘We Have Now’ by Cath Day. Stibbe read her own story ‘The Language of Flowers’ and Gayle treated us to ‘The Good Sandyman’. I feel like there is an opportunity to evolve this project further and possibly create a visual for each story and have a voice-over artist reading the story, to give it visual effect. Sometimes I feel when you’re listening to someone read a story from a book you need to listen intently and if you zone out for a few seconds you can get a bit lost. 

Having said all that the project is for such a fantastic cause it’s difficult to be even slightly critical of it. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the Trauma Response Network to help the victims.


Reportage - Brian Madden
on - 10/10/18