DATE: Saturday 3 May, 2025
TIME: 7pm, Bar from 6pm
COST: Prices vary at ticket holder’s discretion
Details
Created, written and performed by Jeremy Goldstein with Henry Woolf
Directed by Jen Heyes
Banners by Ed Hall
From Adelaide to Zagreb and now at TAC for its Canberra premiere, Jeremy Goldstein’s Truth to Power Café is a profound theatrical reflection on loss, hope, and resistance.
This award-winning international performance event is told through memoir, image, film, poetry, music, and compassionate truth-telling in response to the question: ‘who has power over you and what do you want to say to them?’
Personal, professional, political – speaking truth to power is a non-violent means of conflict resolution, the origins of which lie in the anti-war movement. Is it to your parents, a sibling, politician, lover, landlord, neighbour, banker, boss, or simply your best friend? It’s time to tell them the truth before it’s too late.
We’re seeking 8 Canberrans of all ages, experiences and backgrounds for this special TAC edition. To take part click here to send us 100 words in response to the question before 4th April, and/or click here to attend our info session on Wednesday 19 March.
Truth to Power Cafe is inspired by the political and philosophical beliefs of Nobel-prize winning playwright Harold Pinter and his inner circle The Hackney Gang. For sixty years The Hackney Gang maintained their belief in speaking truth to power and remained firmly on the side of the occupied and the disempowered and their allies. The Hackney Gang included Café creator’s Jeremy Goldstein’s late father Mick Goldstein, and poet and actor Henry Woolf with whom the show was co-created.
Reviews
“Exhilarating” The Australian
“A stunning work of theatrical activism.” The Queer Review New York
“A triumphant rebellion… brave, and empowering” London To Do List
“A priceless repository of living social history, wit, wisdom and defiance.” Attitude Magazine
“Revolutionary theatre at its best and most direct.” The Guardian
Notes
* The Tuggeranong Arts Centre Theatre is raked steeply. People with mobility issues are advised that the top two and bottom two rows are the most easily accessible. Please advise us if you have mobility issues and we can direct you to your seats.
About the Artist
Jeremy Goldstein is an award-winning theatre maker and HIV+ activist. He is the creator of two long term socially engaged theatre projects Truth to Power Café and This Is Who I Am, and the founder and director of London Artists Projects which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. For three decades Jeremy has championed underrepresented voices and new forms of artistic and political expression. Theatre and community engagement is central to his practice, as is creating access and experiences of the arts from within marginalised communities. Jeremy’s projects have won numerous awards including BBC Audio Drama (2009), London Evening Standard (2010), London Cabaret (2012), H.Club/Time Out Performing Arts (2012), Scotsman Fringe First (2009, 2015), Adelaide Fringe (2016, 2024), and London OnComm Theatre Award for Innovation (Finalist 2021).
Truth to Power Cafe’s Jeremy Goldstein. Image by Em Jensen