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 and first performed in a disused shop in West Bromwich in 2008.
Foursight Theatre will be performing The Corner Shop in October - November 2009 in a disused shop unit in the Mander Shopping Centre in Wolverhampton. The audience will promenade around the shop while the performance takes place around them. With performers behind the counter and exhibits on the shelves, the whole environment will serve as a battlecry on behalf of the Black Country’s corner shop community and give life to their stories.
Performance Dates 2009
Mander Centre, Wolverhampton
23rd Oct - 7:30pm
24th Oct - 4pm, 7:30pm
28th Oct - 1pm, 7:30pm (performance for specially invited audience )
29th Oct - 1pm, 7:30pm (press night)
30th Oct - 1pm, 7:30pm
31st Oct - 1pm, 4pm, 7:30pm
5th Nov - 1pm, 7:30pm
6th Nov - 1pm, 7:30pm
7th Nov - 1pm, 4pm, 7:30pm
8th Nov - 4pm, 7:30pm
We have started The Corner Shop blog , which will offer a glimpse behind the scenes of the transformation process of the site from an empty shop into a local high street environment, and follow the rehearsal process each day in the run-up to opening night. Click here to visit the blog .
The Corner Shop is part of a much larger project in partnership with Sandwell Museum Service, Sandwell Community History and Archive Service, and Wolverhampton Arts and Museum Services. The creation of the project was originally supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Sir Barry Jackson Trust. The project will include an education strand with a local Wolverhampton school and will be being documented throughout, resulting in a touring multimedia exhibition in 2009 - 10. The new oral history recordings and any artefacts gathered during the creation of the project have been 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.
The Corner Shop will be suitable for touring from late 2009 onwards. If you are interested in hosting some site-specific performances in your area, please contact Frances Land at Foursight Theatre.
