Who has power over you and what do you want to say to them?

Truth to Power Café is a new international performance event mixing memoir, image, poetry, music, as well as live and spontaneous testimony from participants rising up in the name of free speech and political activism.

The event is inspired by the political and philosophical beliefs of Nobel prize winning playwright Harold Pinter and his Hackney Gang and created in collaboration with last surviving member of the Gang Henry Woolf. Participants of all ages, beliefs and backgrounds can take part in the event by responding to the question 'who has power over you and what do you want to say to them?' before a live audience.

Speaking truth to power has its origins in the anti-war movement, but in this era of post-truth, alternative fact, and fake-news, is widely accepted to mean saying something to those in positions of trust or authority who don’t want to hear it.

Is it to your parents, a sibling, politician, lover, landlord, neighbour, religious leader, boss, banker, carer, trainer or simply your best friend? It’s time to tell them the truth before it’s too late.

Truth to Power Café is a London Artists Projects production developed with the Harold Pinter Archive at the British Library, London; Theatre in the Mill, Bradford; Cast Doncaster, Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games; and Leeuwarden-Friesland European Capital of Culture in The Netherlands.

Presented in association with Index on Censorship and supported by Arts Council England and British Council Artists’ International Development Fund.