Our Freedom: Stockton Rising was a powerful live event reflecting on what freedom means to the people of Stockton, 80 years after the end of the Second World War.

Taking place on Remembrance Day, the event brought together original work co-created by local participants from ARC’s regular creative engagement classes, refugees and asylum seekers who now call Stockton home, ARC’s award-winning associate company of learning-disabled theatre makers, Full Circle, and members of Tees Valley New Creatives.

The production wove together each group’s creative response to Freedom Road, a specially commissioned poem by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage. Each moment offered a window into personal, imaginative and hope-filled answers to the question: what does freedom mean to you, here and now?

The evening opened with a special performance from acclaimed 1940s singer Samantha Holden, whose rendition of The White Cliffs of Dover set the tone and instantly engaged the audience.

ARC hosted six workshops led by associate artist Umar Butt, who worked with a group of local refugees and asylum seekers to co-create a moving piece of theatre exploring their experiences of freedom. The performance traced their journeys to Stockton and reflected on what the town now represents in their lives.

A bespoke piece of poetry was written and performed by poet Aisha Lama. Delivered from the theatre balcony, the poem explored what freedom means to her:

We’ve tasted freedom
At the silence of guns
And the talks of treaties

And I like everyone
come from some shard
of freedom
From the right to travel
The right to settle
The right to citizenship

But freedom does not come
Easy nor instantly  And I don’t think we will know
what real freedom is
Until each of us on this earth
is well and truly free

Six members of Tees Valley New Creatives, a project supporting recently graduated creatives, devised and performed a piece of theatre exploring what freedom means to the local community. This work was created through conversations with members of community groups and members of the public visiting ARC.

They also delivered a dramatised reading of a letter submitted by a community member: a father writing to his son about the day he returned from war. This deeply heartfelt moment resonated strongly with the audience.

ARC’s regular ARCulele class came together to perform a series of songs reflecting on freedom, including I Can See Clearly Now and It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.

To close the show, Full Circle shared a film capturing what freedom means to each individual member of their company. The film explored what needs to be in place for disabled people to feel free, from trips to theme parks to dancing in nightclubs, and much more, offering a joyful and honest celebration of autonomy and possibility.

Together, Our Freedom: Stockton Rising honoured the past while amplifying the voices shaping Stockton’s present and future.