2016–2018 · MERGE FESTIVAL, in partnership with Southwark Council · Site-specific performance · Blackfriars Road, Southwark, London
Blackfriars Road, three times a day: the walk to work, the lunch hour, the walk home. Time To Be Late met people in the middle of all three and asked them to stop for a minute.
Instead of bringing an audience into a theatre, we put the performances out on the street: at bus stops, outside Southwark tube station, on pavements, on buses and inside local businesses. Every character came out of the history of the road itself. Frankenstein introduced his wide-eyed creation to the traffic, because Mary Shelley wrote him while living just off Blackfriars Road. Two boxers took their title fight out of the ring and onto the pavement, because The Ring really stood here, a boxing hall converted from a chapel. Bert Hardy, born in Blackfriars, photographed the street in black and white and kept finding distractions he had not planned for.
Written and directed by: Jonathan Peck and Robin Steegman
Produced by: Robin Linde Productions
Presented by: Merge Festival, in partnership with Southwark Council
Film: Tommo Photo
Performed at: Blackfriars Road and Southwark tube station, London SE1
“Fantastic to be greeted by Merge Festival artists this morning on leaving Southwark station — I’m still smiling!” — @alisonleary1