This House Believes

This House Believes is a new musical that is pushing the boundaries of the expected conventions of the genre. It is a story of a black, working class young man from Tottenham who finds himself amongst the aspirational political set of privileged students at Oxford University. As he gets sucked into this new scene of the Oxford Union debating society, he gets further drawn away from his roots and the community that made him. That is, until a fateful event causes him to re-examine his whole world.

The show is the only current musical which fuses grime, rap, afro beats and hip hop, which are used as a conduit for an exploration of contemporary working class issues whilst still maintaining a conventional musical structure. It is an attempt to examine the classic ‘town and gown’ divide, not only within Oxford but also the class system and power structures of the country as a whole.

This is part of the ethos that is central to the entire project: outreach and tackling the barriers which lock out young people from getting involved in the arts. To this end, we are working with the access charity, the Change Foundation, in order to ensure that the production has a tangible social impact, with the hope for it to circulate amongst those within the disadvantaged communities we are trying to represent.

The script is a reflection of the creator’s own personal experiences, and the original score is being devised by young creatives from Oxford and London.

This House beleives will be showing at the BT Studio on Saturday 17, June at 6pm.