Am I Free Yet? was a short live performance exploring themes of freedom, created by participants of our 2025 Hidden Spire Collective Project, a participatory arts group based at the Old Fire Station. The project was part of a UK-wide initiative ‘Our Freedom: Then and Now’, organised and supported by Future Arts Centres inviting reflection following the 80th anniversary of VE/VJ Day. Below is the diary of Hidden Spire member Anisah Rokib, detailing Am I Free Yet? rehearsals and performance day. 

You can see an exhibition of photography by Sam Ivin, showing all the Am I Free Yet? characters in our lower gallery until October. More info here.

10th of November – Rehearsals

Today we split into groups again. We began by coming together into a circle, and practised some exercises and stretches given by Polly, we then began to practise singing our song for
the performance called Freedom Train. Polly gave us a choice to either perform the beat of the song or to sing. Hamish counted us in and helped us keep rhythm. One group went to rehearse with Polly and the other Lizzy. We were split this time between the loft and garden room. We took it in turn to rehearse our parts with everyone not in the scene being able to watch. We were given feedback at the end of our small performances about how we could make our next performance even better. Then at the end we all came to together to combine the two groups performances. Many noted it was such a treat to be able to watch others perform for the first time from beginning to start. We also had much more props to hand which we were able to practise with. We were able to collectively see which things worked and which things weren’t working, for example we had to adjust how and when each character came off stage and from what side wing, as we began to get confused about which direction we were taking when coming off the stage. We had regular breaks and for the third time running we stayed for longer than what we usually do in order to get more practise time in, starting at 2pm, we ended by 5:30pm. We had a film maker also on location, who was taking recordings of us so that a film can be made about the whole process from beginning to end. We had music play over our scenes and for the first time a lot of us began to play with our characters adding extra words or actions not in the script which made the whole thing much more exciting and fun to act. And so too to watch! Some of us had learnt our lines, others were still learning, but staff noted how much each of us were supporting each other in production, asking help from others to read our lines or generally asking about someone’s wellbeing, another member noted how close we had come and no doubt will become closer as the curtains beckon.

17th November – Performance Day

We arrived at 12am, we were taken to the studio where we were greeted with lunch, the wraps were very good! We got changed into our costumes in our dressing rooms and promptly went into the theatre. We had practised one dress rehearsal. We also had a film person record us for a film being produced about the play.

We then met with Dan from the sound team, who showed us were the lights were in the theatre, and we were shown the haze machine, we decided to add haze to our performance at the last minute. I learnt that haze was just water vapour, but it gives a very nice atmosphere to performances. It can be used also at different percentages, for our performance the percentage of the haze was kept at 20 percent throughout. We then practised with the lights and Dan adjusted the lights on us if we found them too bright, and we also practised complete backouts and navigating our way when a blackout occurred, there were only two in our performance. A blackout sounds scarier than it is, the theatre is never really in total darkness because there are fire exits signs and such. But it almost is.

If we forgot a stage direction or action it seemed almost as if it hadn’t existed in the first place. The first show was packed and the second half full. There were lots of recognisable faces in the audience, it was a pleasure to see each and every one of them. It was also nice to see people’s facial expressions when they were specifically spoken to by an actor during the play. For example, during the nurse’s scene, I had to point at a different member of the audience each time I said a new line, and I was met with surprise or agreement at times which made me feel a bit more relaxed on stage as if the audience member agreed with the line being said.

By this time, we had mostly learnt our lines, and on the day, indeed I do not think anybody forgot their lines.

There were also bouts of laughter at times, for example when I began to dance like no one was watching on the stage or when 787 went off the stage to his time machine.

Between the first and second play we had dinner and had pizza. We only had half an hour between the performances, and we were given feedback from Polly about the first, for example, I could be louder during the party scene.

This was the day, I learnt there is a connecting corridor between the theatre, studio and dressing rooms. This was fun because we could run from the theatre to the studio were there were teas and coffees and snacks waiting for us. There were halloumi and falafel wraps waiting for us from the Damascus Rose Kitchen downstairs and slices of lemon, lime and honey also. These I thoroughly enjoyed. These connecting corridors were useful because I often had huge breaks between parts and other times very small breaks so not having to travel far was super nice.

by Anisah Rokib, Hidden Spire Collective