Theatre / Maddie Wakeling
Roadside: van-dwelling theatremaker Maddie Wakeling’s show inspired by personal experience
Maddie Wakeling is an actor, theatre maker and community arts facilitator.
She is also a van dweller, opting to become a New Traveller in her early adulthood, partly in order to carve out sufficient time and space for her writing, art and activism.
But there are “more intangible reasons” behind her decision, she admits, largely that “it feels like the right place for me to call home and the right way for me to live”.
Now, she has created Roadside, a one-person show inspired by her own personal experience, as well as using testimony drawn from hours of conversation and interviews with friends, relatives and new connections from the New Traveller community.
The narrative centres on free-spirited Milly, a character who finds herself drawn to the parties and festivals she sees van-dwellers being part of.
Maddie Wakeling in Roadside
With a soundtrack of dub, drum n bass and folk tunes (curated by the show’s sound designer, Lisa Meech), and shadow puppetry by the fire, the play explores the questions playing on Milly’s mind.
Does she want to live in a van and commit to a life on the road? If so, what might be in store for her, and will she find fulfilment in living out her dream of “an authentic and autonomous life”?
Shadow puppets are used to represent fireside chats with van dwellers
With Arts Council backing for a full run of performances, the production team have also been conducting creative workshops – free to van dwellers – in Glastonbury, London and Bristol, ahead of the show dates.
Ultimately, what can audiences expect from attending? “The aim of Roadside is of course not for everyone to leave and think, ‘yes, I want to live in a van’,” muses Wakeling, “but I guess it does ask you to reflect on what home and belonging means to you.”
Roadside is at the Trinity Centre on March 28 at 7pm and March 30 at 3pm. For more information and ticket links, visit www.maddiewakeling.co.uk or follow @maddie.wakeling.
All photos: Paul Blakemore
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