The Corner Shop
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A celebration of the corner shop from the stories of the families behind the counter and the customers in front.
The corner shop is a vital aspect of British heritage that has been shared by many cultural groups, owned and run by members of different communities. It is a shared landmark and - in the light of its decline – its continued existence on our streets, in the face of the increasing threat from the all-conquering supermarket, becomes a shared struggle.
In 2006 The Evening Standard reported as part of their ‘Save Our Shops’ campaign that, in the previous five years, 7,000 family or individually-owned convenience stores had disappeared in Britain. As this long-loved institution at the heart of Britain’s community life begins to disappear from our streets, a new site-specific theatre performance, The Corner Shop, celebrates the changing faces and cultures of the corner shop over the years.
In 2008, Black Country Touring collected memories, photographs and documents of shopkeepers, their families and customers of the shops in the Black Country, ranging from traditional English to South Asian to Iranian. Using this material as a starting point, Foursight Theatre created a new theatre production, supported by volunteers from the local community.
Foursight Theatre are hoping to remount The Corner Shop in October - November 2009, at the Mander Centre in Wolverhapton. This new production follows on from the success of their previous one which took place in a disused shop unit in central West Bromwich in September - October 2008, immediately opposite the building site for a well-known supermarket chain's next mammoth development. The audience promenaded around the shop while the performance took place around them. With performers behind the counter and exhibits on the shelves, the whole environment served as a battlecry on behalf of the Black Country’s corner shop community and gave life to their stories.
The Corner Shop is part of a much larger project in partnership with Sandwell Museum Service, Sandwell Community History and Archive Service, and The Public. The project is supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Sir Barry Jackson Trust. The project included an education strand with local schools and has been being documented throughout, resulting in a touring multimedia exhibition in 2009. The new oral history recordings and any artefacts gathered during the project will be lodged at local and national archives and on the web as an ongoing community and heritage resource. To view the online archive, visit the Connecting Histories website.
Foursight Theatre and Black Country Touring are currently exploring options for remounting The Corner Shop in 2009 / 2010. If you are interested in hosting some site-specific performances in your area, please contact Michelle Knight at Foursight Theatre.
