BAC and Quarantine present four productions to create ‘A Public Address’ as part of Wandsworth’s London Borough of Culture celebrations
The full programme has today been announced for A Public Address, award-winning Manchester theatre collective Quarantine’s takeover of BAC 16 Feb - 14 March 2026. Supported by Wandsworth Council as part of Wandsworth's year as The Mayor’s London Borough of Culture, Quarantine will collaborate with a huge range of people across Lavender Hill and the wider borough, and offer audiences a rare insight into people’s lives and how they see the world.
Taking place around, throughout and from the balcony of BAC, A Public Address draws on Quarantine’s 27-year history of dismantling conventions and collaborating with all kinds of people.
Quarantine will create the work with a huge range of people across Lavender Hill and the wider borough, and offer audiences a rare insight into people’s lives and how they see the world, dancing around the edges of theatre and civic art.
Across four strands, through intimate encounters and grand-scale durational performance, A Public Address builds a kaleidoscopic portrait of the people in Lavender Hill and beyond.
Using the building’s former role as a town hall as inspiration, once a site for radical politics, including infamous speeches and debates on religion, suffrage, social housing and art, A Public Address will bring the people of Wandsworth together to ask: who gets heard in a place like this today?
The takeover will include a World Premiere of a new two part work created especially for BAC, Why I am and why I am not.In the first part, entitled The Balcony, 12 people will make a speech to the public from the outside of BAC’s building – tackling subjects from the personal to the universal, the seemingly flippant to certainly urgent. Speakers will include a child; someone who makes speeches for a living; a new arrival to the city – a diverse set of individual voices and personalities, each beginning their address with ‘Why I am….’ or ‘Why I am not….’ The next day, the same people will be in conversation inside BAC in an installation of people entitled The Rooms, responding to the opposite starting point to whatever they chose to make their speech about. Why I am and why I am not in its entirety is a portrait of people and place that will examine the relationship between our public and private selves, who we are and who we proclaim to be.
On 14 March, Quarantine present the London premiere of 12 Last Songs - an epic 12-hour durational work that invites people from across Wandsworth to work a paid shift on stage in an exploration of the place work has in our lives. The tenth iteration of its twelve international productions, and the last chance to see it in London before it draws to a close.
Throughout the two weeks, audiences can experience the London premiere of The People of Lavender Hill, an audio walk. Using their smartphone, audiences will experience a portrait of the street of Lavender Hill, pausing perhaps at the hairdressers, the corner shop, or the late night takeaway, to hear from the people behind the counter. The piece asks how we come to be somewhere, why we stay, and what it means to live side by side.
Taking place in cafes within a one-mile radius of BAC, Quarantine will bring their oldest and most intimate work - No Such Thing. From its beginnings in 2012 in a curry cafe in Manchester, No Such Thing has gone on to tour the world – with iterations in Istanbul, Turkey, Cairo, Egypt and multiple German cities. An intimate production which takes place between only two people, the offer is simple - Quarantine will buy you lunch whilst you have a conversation guided by a menu of questions. Over the course of the time, you’ll talk about what’s happening in the world, in our lives and stuff that’s playing on our minds.
Tarek Iskander, Artistic Director and CEO of Battersea Arts Centre, said:
“It feels incredibly special to be co-producing A Public Address with Quarantine as part of Wandsworth’s London Borough of Culture year. Our home on Lavender Hill began life as Battersea Town Hall — a place for public debate, protest and civic imagination, with a radical, rebellious streak that’s never really left the building. Quarantine’s work with us taps straight into that spirit, shining a light on the voices and experiences that make up Wandsworth today and inviting us to consider what a Town Hall means now. At its heart, the project is about what connects us, and the power of shared experiences and collective action. We can’t wait to welcome people and see how it unfolds.”
Richard Gregory, Co-Artistic Director, Quarantine said: “When Quarantine were invited to make a ‘takeover’ of BAC during Wandsworth’s year as London Borough of Culture, the starting point for us was to think about the building itself – its past as a former Town Hall, the history of its very public address, and the role it might play in the life of the area. We wanted to make a space there for people to assemble and to be seen and heard.
Built out of 3 existing pieces of Quarantine’s work, re-made locally, and 1 brand new one (the two-part Why I am and why I am not), the takeover unfolds both in and outside the building. A Public Address is a geographical and human ‘zooming in’, shifting between the public and the private, the epic and the intimate. We hope that we might stake a claim for people to have their say in a space that they can make their own.”
Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries, said: “A Public Addressis an exciting addition to Wandsworth’s year as the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture. It will see Battersea Arts Centre return to its town hall roots - bringing local people together for a stimulating discussion. From exploring local history to being a part of large-scale performances, it shows the power of the arts to bring people together, helping us build a better London for everyone.”
Kemi Akinola, Deputy Leader of Wandsworth Council, Cabinet Member for Business, Voluntary Services and Culture said: “We want Wandsworth’s London Borough of Culture year to leave a legacy of connection. We want our residents to feel closer to their neighbours through shared experiences, and build memories, relationships, and a more connected community. Quarantine’s A Public Address will bring people from all walks of life together to share food and conversation, invite them to see their neighbours and neighbourhoods in a new light, and to share the spotlight. As someone passionate about amplifying local voices, I’m thrilled to see the heritage of the old Battersea Town Hall -a historic space where Battersea residents could gather and be heard - honoured in the world premiere of Quarantine’s latest project.”
For nearly three decades Quarantine has been making theatre that centres on conversations between ordinary people, creating circumstances for encounters between strangers. Each production is totally unique, made without actors – a form of mass portraiture, building fragmented pictures of people and the places they happen or choose to share.
