ACT IVIT IE S
City of Light At dusk on Friday September 6th in Cathedral Square, there will be a visual and musical celebration of Peterborough and its people, past and present. Fiona Cumberpatch finds out how a unique multi cultural project came together “Working together breeds trust and community.” Jon Baker, composer, Upon This Rock
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f you come to Cathedral Square, Peterborough at 7pm on September 6th, you may be surprised at what you find there. Arts organisation Metal has been working with local community groups, schools and individuals to create an event called Upon This Rock. Spectacular lantern parades, starting from three points near the city centre, will culminate in a musical and dramatic performance which is intended to celebrate the city’s identity and heritage. The performance takes its inspiration from the idea of ‘home’ and the city’s history of migration, which can be traced through the housing schemes of the 60s and 70s and thousands of years back to the Bronze Age boat people of the Fens. “Peterborough is a place where people have constantly arrived and settled, it’s not just a recent thing,” says Emma Bernard, artistic director of Upon This Rock. “It is about life sweeping you along and finding somewhere to hang on to. For many people, Peterborough has been that island, that safe place that they have come to call home.” Emma has been working with composer Jon
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Baker and people from the community to create a narrative structure, which will form the basis of the performance in Cathedral Square. “We are just the catalysts,” points out Emma. “The project is all about getting people together to create something homegrown.” With volunteer members from different communities within the city, Emma and Jon have been running workshops to tease out some of their family stories. “It’s about looking at your family from the outside and talking about yourself as if you’re another person,” says Emma. “To do this, we use role playing, memory games and storytelling. I will then go away and write a script based on what people have said.” Meanwhile Jon Baker has composed music to underscore the set pieces and has put together a band of local musicians. He has been scouring the city for singers and has met with local choirs and singing groups, including a Polish choir and the popular Peterborough Voices. “Singing has gone from a lot of people’s lives,” says Jon. “It is good to turn it into a community bonding experience. The aim of all this is to
involve as many local people as we can and to maximise the links between different groups of people.” Some might argue that this is exactly what Peterborough needs. As an ethnically diverse city, which, according to Arts Council research, has a low engagement with the arts compared to other towns (it is in the bottom 20 per cent in the country), a project which promotes both interest in culture and community cohesion could be valuable. The British Council carried out a study which suggests that “culture enables us to appreciate points of commonality and where there are differences to understand the motivations and humanity that underlie them.” It is something which Jon and Emma appreciate. “We all share the same sky, but we are allowed to be different,” says Emma. “This is all about unity and coming together, it’s not about sameness.” Adds Jon: “Working together breeds trust and community.” Both Jon and Emma have been surprised what they have found in the city. “The people we’ve met have been some of the most positive
NENE VALLEY LIVING AUGUST 2013
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