An Out of the Wood Work performance.

Show with Focus E15 Housing Campaign

The Big Bad Wolf —a picture of local government bending over backwards to act in the interests of landlords and property developers — was seen skulking in Stratford Park in the late afternoon winter light. This formed our Christmas Talking Sculpture performance, made with the Focus E15 Housing Campaign for our final meeting of 2025.

Although street puppet traditions have dark roots*, in contemporary culture the word puppet tends to conjure images of glove puppets like Sooty and Sweep—and these small domestic monstrosities emerging form the woodwork are anything but.

Work on the performance began with a skeleton script, loosely based on The Three Little Pigs. The idea came from a dream described by one of the campaign members, and was then developed collectively, with people working with the campaign adding dialogue.

In this version, the Bad Wolf appears as the council, acting in the interests of a property developer. He arrives on a council housing estate and visits the overcrowded home of the Everyday Family, who are forced to pay inflated rents to Fleece Em and Bleedum estate agents, who bought up ex-council flats cheap to make loads, and loads of money!

The Wolf tries three times to persuade the Everyday Family to agree to the complete regeneration of their estate—which would mean being relocated for the next fifty years outside London away from their support networks and jobs. These unscrupulous persuasion techniques happen in reality, as we saw on the Carpenters Estate. It was even more bizarre than we could have made up: people employed as clowns handing out chips to encourage residents to vote yes to demolish their estate, while the mayor walked around wearing a virtual reality helmet, showing what the new build would look like. More information here

The way the work arrives, including the making and carving of the characters from reused furniture and domestic objects, reflects an interest in how domestic materials carry both the histories of those who lived with them and the labour that shaped them. Working with low-cost, scrap materials has also been influenced by my work with children.

Some of the characters form through conversation, sometimes even as jokes, with people in the campaign. As I carve them, we talk about what is emerging and adjustments are made. This way of working feels like a kind of collective dreaming; perhaps closer to the kinds of shared culture people had many years ago.

The characters increasingly seem to take on a life of their own. When people give them a voice it can feel like they are orchestrating the event, some of them have been around for 14 years and new ones have have joined like Susan Bright the lamp shade and the Bad Wolf Bucket Head created specifically for this event. Characters like Old Ron Barat, who never had a day off sick in his life, although it’s debatable how many of his fellow workers needed time off from the effects of working with him, have been around for seventeen years. He’s based on a man my dad used to work with at Delta Metals, who knew and had done almost everything (the O2 Dome is built on the site now). Many of us I’m sure, have known a Ron Barat, who, when you are at a low ebb, will tell you to get a proper job, or, if you do something musical with your mates, will say: “Anything but work.”

It is this sharing of stories that binds the work together and allows connections to form. Some of the more recent characters carry layered histories, built from stories shared by people involved in the housing campaign. Through this process, the puppets came to feel like a form of social glue, holding the work in place forming something like a collective dream. The actual performance took place in the park as we were locked out of the bowls club where it was due to take place. Although the final performance was difficult the whole experience was good and hopefully we can do something like it again. Information about previous performance here.

Alongside this were analogue photographs of the event, reminiscent of family holiday camp images by Catherine Walker, and additions of poetry and script (detailed below).

Here is the script we worked out written by the cast 
Andrew Cooper, Jamie Mills, (including final poem), Jasmin Stone, Paige Daines (Bad Wolf idea), Safia Stone, Judy Watchman, Janice Graham, Hannah Caller.

 The Big Bad Wolf Tries it on in Newham 

Intro 

Scene 1 

Narrator 

Include Hannah background to the housing situation. 

Then 

Here we have the Everyday family, in a nice warm but overcrowded ex council flat which they are having to pay a  huge rent to Fleece ‘Em an’ Cheetum properties which the council said was suitable.

Here we have Nelly Nogood who is the back bone of the household. (Answers) 

Her daughter Moola who at times is the milk of human kindness.

(Answers)

Uncle Ron well meaning but with the sensitivity of grade 6 sandpaper. 

(Answers)

His poetic friend Stewart who looks up to him.

(Answers)

And Great, great, uncle Johnny Sweet Apple 137 years old found whilst digging on an allotment.

(Answers)

Garyleena, Nellys good friend, with her green laser eyes 

Play starts –

A council flat with view from window. Shows children playing people doing hobbies etc

 ….Johnny Sweet Apple (ancient 132) , Nelly Nogood, Young Garyleena, Brian Sharp(20) , Moola , Susan Bright (lamp shade) Ron Barrat ( annoying old git) and his friend poetic friend who looks up to him Stuart 

Ron Barat -Nelly! Nelly! I can’t find any matching socks in my draw have YOU been taking them?

Throws all the socks on floor 

Nelly Nogood- You doughnut! Look at the mess! I’m just trying to go out with Garyleena down the spoons for curry night and you are distracting me because you cant put things away properly!

Moola- I like odd socks me. 

Garyleena- Come on Nelly let leave them to it other wise Johnny Sweet apple will start next.

Johnny sweet Apple snores so loud he wakes himself up As he snores he emits a characteristic jet of saliva.

Johnny Sweet Apple in a slow groan he sees and shows the bowls trophy he won in 1926

Johnny – OOH I remember that i do! Ha ha (Splatter Jet)  i got in the local paper those were the days, i used to go down the cake shop after all those mental excursions with the old wooden balls (lets a ball role) 

Moola- He he goes milking it again…..

Ron, Stewart start singing ‘Roll out the barrel, we’ll have a barrel of fun, Roll out the barrel, we’ve got the blues on the run!

Brian and Moola together -OMG that’s truly awful ! mum mum! Help! 

Garyleena and Nelly -We’re off! 

Scene 2 going to, in the pub and leaving 

Narrator

Here we see them in the pub and they meet a new friend, Sue Bright ….

Nelly and Garyleena Together Singing in the pub –

If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain 

If you think the landlords an ogre and you have have half a brain.

Come and Join our housing campaign! 2x (Second time Sue bright joins in.)

Sue Bright- Yes the rent and lack of repairs, I’m with L and Screw You and it’s hell ..(suddenly realising)Oh I didn’t realise it was so late!

Garyleena and Nelly together – We’re only round the corner come back with us, you can crash out on the sofa! 

Garilena: time to get home, fancy a night cap ladies?

Susan bright: We don’t need a nightcap, we need a rent cap, before my hat is my roof.

Scene 3 

Narrator

Oh my what’s that creature they got working for the housing office it looks like the Big ….Bad!……Wolf !!

the Bad Woof Appears . He changes the  window scene and the buildings and estate so the estate is emptied  of people and is covered in pound note signs

 Bad W -(Singing to Abba tune) full pelt singing (Diana Ross style) 

I Have a dream,  a dream of money!

A dream of money to make me feel real!

Money is my destination! 

It makes me feel so worth  while!

Pushin’ through my internal darkness,  you suckers can just get real!

He is accompanied the forces that drive him who alternate in snake like voices addressed to the audience-

E- Con- Money –   Eee Con Mon Nee Pro Tect the Rich . He’s Controlled by us……

Mark-It-   He’s controlled by us. Mark It , Mark It profits for the rich 

–

(Mark-it who sniffs profit and people in the audience to  exploit  and E-con-money that snaps the deals) 

Scene 4

Narrator 

It’s early morning and Sue Bright is crashed out on sofa and the whole family and friends are asleep….

Oh my! …the wolf is at the door will they recognise it?

Bad W.. First knock Wakes Garyleena and Nelly who are hung over 

Hi suite is covered with an old jacket and he wears a baseball cap a wolf in sheep’s clothing 

KNOCK KNOCK 

Bad W Hey dudes i got some cool proposition for you just sign here. 

Reaction

-NO-

Comes again as council KNOCK KNOCK 

Bad W Hey dudes-Ok i work for the council but people are at the heart of everything we do. I used to hang out with people like you in the library before closed it. We will provide lin dancing classes if you let us develop this rotten estate.

Reaction

-Rotten Estate ! It’s you that Leased out the repairs to Bleed em and Fleece them! No! on your Bike!

Comes again as fully cooperate representative of the property developer company the council has set up. 

KNOCK KNOCK 

YOU have no choice but to sign it is in the small print which is in stone 

Moola- Not exactly the milk of human kindness is he?

Reaction

NO NO we going to stone wall you just wait and see 

Children and all sing whose afraid of the big bad wolf the big bad wolf wolf 

What we say is resist or resign, resist or resign. (Repeat)

They throw the net of collective action and solidarity over the Bad Woof. Johnny Sweet Apple covers him in saliva 

——————-

Final voice from the darkness 

It’s cold out here

It’s not getting wetter

The politicians 

Are not getting better 

I want to kick them in the bum

Everythime they say something dumb

Marks and Spencers sandwich platters

Whilst domestic violence 

Leaves us battered

Chats behind closed doors

Going nowhere just like before 

The kids from 2014

Are bigger now

Generations together fighting loud.
(poem J. Mills)

END 

End Note

The idea of wood becoming animated like a puppet, with something inside the wood bringing it to life, is very ancient. Even today we speak of things “coming out of the woodwork.” In ancient myths we often find trees that think and feel – for example in ancient Celtic Culture the whispering or walking willow. Many cultures recognise the truth of our interdependence with nature and with each other. Recently, in Bolivia, rivers have even been granted legal rights*.

Among the Yahgan people at the southern tip of South America there was a belief that forest spirits lived in gnarled ancient trees and stumps*. I mention this because many years ago I read about it and, in my memory, I confused the detail that young people would sometimes begin singing to the spirits that were believed to inhabit these trees.

More recently I came across a fascinating passage in Elisabeth Cameron’s book ‘Isn’t S/He a Doll?‘* which surveys the use of puppets and dolls across the African continent. In many folk puppet traditions, sculpture can be used both for storytelling and for play. There is also the striking idea that a figure made from dead material is moving towards life, while human bodies slowly move in the opposite direction. Through play, life is given to the sculpture rather than it remaining a dead thing displayed in a gallery. This idea made psychological sense to me. Apart from our connection to the cycles of nature, the objects around us in our homes, such as domestic timber, also products of past labour and the histories of the people who once had a living relationship with the home*. A house is not simply an object that is bought and sold. Decent housing for all is a major part of creating a decent world for everyone, because it supports both mental stability and a sense of connection.

*https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/apr/10/bolivia-enshrines-natural-worlds-rights
*Joseph Campbell The Mythology of the Great Hunt page 160
*Elisabeth Cameron Isn’t S/He a Doll, Play and Ritual in African Sculpture.Page 12
*Karl Marx, Capital, Volume One, Chapter 10. Labour creates value; past labour — “dead labour” — is a form of social interdependence capitalism encourages us to forget.