Phyllida Lloyd CBE, Director of Grenfell: In The Words of Survivors, comes to talk at our Annual Open Meeting
We were pleased to be able to hold this year’s Annual Open Meeting in the River Room at The Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. The event was attended by over 50 people, and gave those present an insight into WLAC and an opportunity to hear about our valuable work in the local community. Our West London Action for Children therapists and counsellors talked about the support they provide for local families and the impact of their work, promoting the wellbeing of children by working with them, their families and carers to achieve positive change.
Many of our client families face challenges in the UK’s housing crisis. Most of the children we support are living in overcrowded, insecure, unsuitable or even dangerous conditions and housing uncertainty is widespread. We support clients to navigate the complexities of the system and work through the situation they find themselves in. With this in mind, we were thrilled to welcome our speaker for the evening - the film and theatre director Phyllida Lloyd CBE. Her theatre work includes productions at The Royal National Theatre and The Royal Court Theatre and directing opera for The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and Opera North. She is perhaps best known for directing the movies Mamma Mia in 2008 and The Iron Lady in 2011. However, it was the subject of her powerful verbatim play, Grenfell: in the words of survivors, which was performed at The National Theatre in July-August 2023, that she was interviewed about for our meeting.
Our Chair of Trustees Meg Kaufman introduced Phyllida and asked about the process of preparing, researching and interviewing survivors, and using contributions from local people and organisations, to explore the impact of the 2017 fire. The play was written by Gillian Slovo and incorporated conversations from those impacted by the fire in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower building which led to the loss of 72 lives. Deeply moving and startling, the play explored the resilience and courage of the community and their continued campaign for justice. All participants were invited to a reading of the play during its development and The National Theatre, whom as a registered charity did not make any profit for this work, believed this important story deserved to be told on a national scale.
We would like to thank Phyllida for her insightful and moving talk; the Riverside Studios for providing a wonderful room and delicious refreshments for our audience; our therapists, counsellors and volunteers; and everyone who came along.
Read a review from The Guardian here Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors review – a masterpiece of forensic fury | National Theatre | The Guardian
Meet the team here: Team — West London Action for Children