Dictating to the Estate
Dictating to the Estate is a verbatim documentary play about events leading up to the Grenfell Tower fire.
Its title derives from a remark made by Rock Feilding-Mellen, former Deputy Leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, that the village does not dictate to the estate.
Using contemporary blog posts, emails and council records, it tells the story of the renovation of the tower and residents’ attempts to hold the council and contractors to account. At the same time, it places these events in a wider context of austerity, estate regeneration and deregulation.
The production will run for two weeks in November 2021 at the Maxilla Social Club, a popular local venue five minutes’ walk from Grenfell Tower. A digital version of the production will be filmed onsite and released in early 2022.
The production team will also collaborate with a local youth charity to help them stage a performance that will open the play.
Why we are making Dictating to the Estate
The Grenfell Tower fire, in which seventy-two people died, was the worst residential fire in Britain since the end of the Second World War. It happened in the wealthiest borough of the one of the wealthiest cities in the world, in a building managed by a council that held hundreds of millions of pounds in reserves. The plays aims to present, in dramatic form, an account of how such an event could occur.
The aims of this production are to:
- Broaden understanding among audiences beyond North Kensington and housing activists of how the fire came to happen
- Provide people with information that may help them scrutinise and challenge the actions of their own local authority
- Place these events in the context of deregulation, austerity and estate regeneration, showing how key local government decisions are determined by national policy
- Raise awareness of the campaign to have similar cladding removed from tall buildings around the UK
- Help maintain pressure on the authorities to ensure that those responsible will be held to account
Why we need you
We have managed to raise a good proportion of the budget so far, but we still need another £13,697.
Since the pandemic, funding available from grant bodies has become a lot scarcer. We had always planned a fundraising campaign, but in the current circumstances it has become more vital than ever.
The funds raised will go towards paying for the cast and crew, the venue hire and the play’s equipment, set and props. It will also help fund our partnership with the local youth charity by paying for the young people’s tutors and expenses.
Who we are
Nathaniel McBride is a writer and translator who lives in Kensington and has been involved in a number of local campaigns around housing.
Allegra Nespoli is a creative producer who makes works about social justice and human rights. She has produced work that has been shown at the Royal Court theatre, Hackney Showroom, Birmingham Rep and Roundhouse.
