QUEER THEATRE COMPANY TAKES ZERO HOURS PLAY ON TOUR

By Sweet Beef Theatre Company

​Sweet Beef is an emerging queer theatre collective. We work as a collective to explore socio-political issues that affect us, with a healthy dose of audience interaction, comedy, dance and drag. 

This spring, thanks to support from Zero Hours Justice, we took our show I Hate it Here on tour across the UK to regional theatres and community spaces in London, Basingstoke, Leeds, Manchester and Edinburgh. 

Photo by Alex Brenner and Giulia Paratelli

I Hate It Here is an interactive devised piece about zero hours contracts and instability. The show centres on Plang, an elderly care worker who loves a boogie, Tara, a nurse with a penchant for Anne Robinson, and Spud, a teenage fast-food worker who would just love a date with fit Clare. 

​The show was a sell-out at Summerhall in Edinburgh and received 5 star rave reviews from The Student and All Edinburgh Theatre.

Because of Zero Hours Justice’s support, we were able to offer free tickets to 140 zero hours contract workers and audience members who couldn’t otherwise afford to come along for every performance. For each show 10% of the tickets were given out through this FREE ticket scheme which meant the show was able to reach the people it was about! 

​We also ran free creative workshops about work and zero hours contracts - online, and  in-person at the Pleasance Theatre in London and with HideOut Youth Zone in Manchester. The workshops with HideOut in particular illuminated young people's perspectives on employment and zero hours contracts as they began their working lives. 

Photo by Alex Brenner and Giulia Paratelli

It highlighted how much appetite there is for work to be something fulfilling and enjoyable but how rare they perceived that to be. Across the board our workshop participants gave fantastic feedback, some having never had the opportunity to do creative workshops like this before. ​

The tour was such a success that we’re planning another tour and a run at Edinburgh Fringe in 2024.