Helena Thompson - Artivists Handbook Interview

SPID Theatre (Social Progressive Interconnected Diverse), an award-winning leader in artistic 

activism, celebrates its 20th anniversary with a six-week run of their hit show, Artivist’s 

Handbook. This innovative performance was developed over the charity’s 7-year refurbishment 

of their Grade II* listed theatre, whose new lift, sloping corridor and restoration works was 

nominated for a prestigious MacEwan Award, opening doors for new possibilities in the 

conversation around accessibility within heritage and listed buildings. The performance shares

SPID’s tactics for securing social change and investment in estate communities. With landlord

negligence and homelessness on the rise, the production is an urgently needed testimony to the 

value of access and safety.

Photo by Alex Brenner.

Performed by Helena Thompson (founder and artistic director, SPID Theatre), Artivist’s 

Handbook is a dramatisation of their charity’s history. Uplifting, educational and redemptive, 

the production highlights how Thompson raised £4 million to restore their council estate 

theatre, spear headed an estate wide refurbishment and sued RBKC, the landlord they share 

with the Grenfell Tower. SPID’s Artistic Director and Founder Helena Thompson comments, SPID 

views the Grenfell Tower fire as a symbol of interconnected climate, race, youth, and housing 

injustice. Through our art, petition, press and legal action we are calling for global legislation to 

safeguard our children, bodies, minds and planet

We spoke to Helena Thompson ahead of the performances.

What can you tell me about Artivist Handbook which premieres this November? 

The show tells the history of housing justice and the story of SPID's groundbreaking refurbishment. It offers much needed hope and brings people together at a time when they often feel alone. It shares how we brought social change using petitions, press, legal action and performance. It launches our join justice campaign calling for housing, race, climate and youth justice: you can check out the trailer here.

What inspired this project?
Artivists Handbook is the story of SPID. I founded SPID to make art that advocates housing justice twenty years ago. At the time I was the age of the young people SPID works with now. I had been through the Buildings at Risk Register and discovered the neglected Kensal House Community Theatre. I fell in love with it immediately, and it became my life's dream to restore it.

How does this show fit in with the ethos of the company?
When SPID started we were a collective of unpaid volunteers. Now we're a team of 8 professionals with a turn over of more than £250 000 per year. Over time the need for our work has exacerbated with the housing crisis. Investment in social housing has declined since 2005, while the sell off of social housing has increased.

You've worked tirelessly in restoring the Grade II listed theatre building which has included a nomination for a MacEwan Award, how has this project help shape the work you'll be able to stage going forwards? 

This innovative performance was developed over our 7-year refurbishment of SPID’s Grade II* listed theatre, whose new lift, sloping corridor and restoration works proved that heritage can be accessible – allowing us to bring our beautiful listed building to life as a character within our fully inclusive shows and dramatized tours.

Photo by Alex Brenner.

How important is it to you to include real life social issues in the work that you stage? 

Authenticity and lived experience is key to SPID’s grass roots, DIY approach to high quality community theatre on council estates. As a youth charity that uses theatre, film and radio to call for investment in social housing, SPID mixes verbatum testimonies with scripted dialogue to celebrate and champion estates’ history. This performance shares SPID’s tactics for securing social change and investment in estate communities. With landlord negligence and homelessness on the rise, the production is an urgently needed testimony to the value of access and safety.

This piece dramatises the charity's history, but how do you personally reflect on the journey with this 20th anniversary celebration?
Completing our £4m refurbishment after fighting for investment in social housing community spaces for so long was a great feeling because it’s something I’ve dreamed of since I first saw Kensal House Community Rooms in 2005. It means a lot that in doing so we've managed to bring the whole estate up to standard because I’ve always believed that the tenants of social housing are stronger when they work together. We're also proud to have rehoused two families from flooded flats along the way, an achievement that is close to my heart because those people are friends whose children played with mine. It’s gratifying that as part of the 20-year birthday celebrations, Methuen are publishing an anthology of my most popular plays about social change.

How did the Grenfell Tower disaster and the events that followed shape the continued work you've done?
Aristotle described tragedy as that which is surprising yet inevitable, a definition which the Grenfell Tower fire fulfilled. My play argues, ‘it wasn’t the fridge or the cladding that killed my friends, it was being ignored,’ revealing how it took burning alive to get the residents of social housing noticed. With residents displaced by Kensal’s floods and Grenfell’s fires represented on our board, SPID stands for solidarity and shares the stories of those affected. SPID views the Grenfell Tower fire as a symbol of the interconnected climate, race, youth, and housing injustice underpinning world wide systemic corruption.

What was the first piece of theatre you remember having a big impact on you?
I'm a squatter and a raver from the 90s free party scene, so the site-specific live art movement really moved me. I loved Shunt's Cabaret performances in Bethnal Green's disused railway arch.

What keeps you inspired?
I am constantly inspired by those we work with and by our charity’s own living history. SPID’s success is founded in collaboration, growing from years of unpaid partnerships with estate residents, young people, artivists and audiences– despite decades of having our case repeatedly rejected. It is a privilege to have united those living and working in Kensal House in holding Grenfell’s landlord to account for repair and safety failures on our own historic estate. The council have begun a multimillion-pound capital works program to bring the whole estate up to standard. They have awarded SPID hundreds of thousands towards capital costs, compensation and youth funding. Historic Kensal’s decline and restoration is now a symbol of positive social change. We are lucky to have actor, comedian and rapper Doc Brown as our patron, raising our profile and attracting new allies to our cause.

What do you hope an audience takes away from seeing Artivist Handbook?
As the fight for housing justice continues, it’s worth remembering that nothing we do is ever achieved alone. At this dark time of reckoning, don’t forget the solace of supporting each other, win or lose– or that in our lived experience, justice always wins – it’s just a question of how long it takes. SPID believes this knowledge is a hard-won kind of love, that knowledge is power, so love is power, because justice is the public face of love. That’s why SPID is striving to make us all feel better by calling collectively for housing, race, climate and youth justice through our join justice campaign– see trailer.

Where can audiences see the show?
SPID Theatre, Kensal House Community Rooms, Kensal House estate, Ladbroke Grove, W10 5BQ from Fri, 14 Nov 2025 – Sat, 13 Dec 2025.

Tickets are available from https://spidtheatre.com/

Photo by Alex Brenner