A combination of art installation and verbatim theatre, this vital new community project/artwork gets to the heart of homelessness in modern day Britain. Greater Manchester’s street dwellers are a much ignored community. Passers-by will look away, look at their phones or cross the street to avoid eye-contact with these people. Our Homeless hold a mirror up to society and challenge us to confront questions of generosity, charity and our own good fortune. This mirror is one that many struggle, or refuse to peer into.

But for every person ignored (at best) mistrusted or pitied, there is a back story, a ‘there but for the grace of God’ a chain of events from childhood to now not hugely dissimilar to our own. Choices made, hands dealt…

Local artist and Theatre maker David Haworth has a knack for taking people’s stories and telling them in new ways, in the past he has found hard to reach communities and given them voice through his stage plays. ‘Going Out’ tells the stories of a group of people who have experience of the Mental Health service, ‘Falling For You’ got to the heart of the elderly community including those with dementia and with experience of falls. ‘Out Of Joint’ explored the lives of teenagers excluded from school. David often uses verbatim in his theatre work; he has developed techniques of interview that put people at ease and encourage them to open up with their personal stories. David is also an artist with over twenty years of experience of designing sets and costume for the stage as well as creating art installations. ‘My Wildest Dreams’ will combine both these areas of expertise.

Over a period of months, working closely with local homeless charities, David will walk the streets and interview people he finds living there. Once he has built up a store of research material and stories he will turn them into a thought-provoking and challenging piece of public art that will appear in various locations throughout Manchester. Entreating, encouraging, perhaps even forcing people to look at homelessness in a new way…