by Jemimah Steinfeld

Caravan by Mimi Poskett

Mimi Poskitt is one half of the brains behind documentary-theatre company Look Left Look Right Productions. Alongside other artistic director Ben Freedman, the company have been exploring a distinct mix of national tragedies since its creation in 2005. Through recording conversations with people and re-enacting them on stage, significant moments in both the individual and the nation’s history are vividly put to performance. Their latest undertaking, The Caravan, guides the audience through the trials and tribulations of the victims of the 2007 floods, many of whom have been unable to return to their original homes, immured within the walls of a caravan to this day.

What attracted you to the idea of documentary-theatre over TV documentary or standard theatre?

Well, Ben and I both worked in TV and we trained in theatre, so it was really an amalgamation of skills. We use the technique of verbatim theatre because this is a very bespoke and truthful way of portraying what people have said. In addition, people will not say certain things on camera, but they will if they just have a tape recorder in front of them, so people are often more open and it is more intimate. It allows a more tactile, real experience. This was particularly the case with The Caravan, where some of these people might have been put off by us interviewing them with a camera crew and might have opted out of being on TV, but were not put off by just their voices being recorded.

In 2005 your play Yesterday Was A Weird Day, Reflections on July 7th 2005 explored the London bombings. What kind of an impact has The Caravan, your latest play, had on its audience compared to the highly sensitive and evocative nature of one on 7/7?

The flood is a very particular event and if you are from the affected areas, the play will have a huge impact. We generally look for stories where we feel the news coverage has not done justice to the people in the situation. After all, news often looks for the headlines, for the really obvious stories, but we wanted to explore something that was sidelined. To this end, The Caravan is a very personal play, whereas the last one was about a major global issue that took form on one day.

Following on from this, the floods were region specific. Do you feel that the reaction of the audience varies depending on how close or far removed they were from the flooding?

We don’t alter the play according to where we are, so the stories remain the same and are specific to this particular flood and therefore it will have a different impact on different crowds depending on whether those people had direct experience of the 2007 floods and are in high flood risk areas or not.

However, the flooding is not just something that only affects those in the flood areas of 2007; it is and always has been an issue that affects many people and will become an even bigger issue in the future. For example, most of London is built on a flood plain and so people living in London will be affected by floods. It is also an issue that does not just affect people from one specific social group, but touches people from all different walks of life. Even though we focused on one precise incident, the experience of flooding will be similar for other floods both prior to and post 2007.

You do hard-hitting plays on major national disasters – are there any other disasters in English history that really stand out and that you would like to explore further?

What we try to do as a company is give a voice to people who have not had a voice and/or who are not talked about in the media as much as they should. There have been millions of disasters over the course of time that we could look at, but currently we like to explore issues that are in the news right now and are therefore very relevant, so that they can receive more attention and a rapid response.

From your research, what do you think we can learn from the floods to avoid this situation happening again? Indeed, have measures already been taken?

We really need to be better prepared. There should be more cooperation between local agencies, residents, councils and flood forums, since in the past people are getting flood warnings once they have already been flooded.

There also needs to be a massive change in the way we look at land. For example, in the play we explore one episode in which a person’s home was destroyed as a result of floods in an area that had already been ear-marked as a high flood risk zone. It is completely counter-intuitive that houses should have been built there. We need to respond to the science more.

In addition, there needs to be better plans for when people do get flooded. Our play does not concentrate on the actual flooding, but the aftermath of the flooding, in which the main trauma resulted from victims still living in caravans over a year after the event.

Have you ever spent time in a caravan? If so, how was it?

Apart from the one we have, which we slept in for one night at Latitude Festival, no, I haven’t and I have never been on a caravan holiday. But our caravan is our stage and rehearsal room, so sleeping aside, I have nevertheless spent a lot of time in it. It’s part of the furniture now and performing in a caravan feels completely normal.

Do you have any creative plans after The Caravan?

We are currently doing a project with the Roundhouse and also have plans for next year, but these are top secret and not to be disclosed yet.