The Bexley Responder: A Living Newspaper was a community written living newspaper performed live on Bexleyheath High Street on 13th of December 2025. Written over three months, the street theatre performance was a collaboration between Post Workers Theatre and six community writers who collectively dramatised Bexley’s news from the year. The stories in Bexley ranged from cinema closures and frightening flags to housing shortages and endangered green spaces, all told from the fantastical perspective of talking tower blocks, town cryers, heavy metal water voles, green men and zombie Labubu’s. 

The project was underpinned by research into the history of the ‘Living Newspaper’ in Russia, USA and England in the 1920’s-30’s.  A living newspaper is a historic form of theatre that engages audiences by dramatising current events and social issues, often proposing ways to inspire change.

Over six weeks the community writers gathered stories from across the borough and explored local issues through interviews, workshops, and vox pops at the Thamesmead Festival. These activities generated characters, storylines, and songs that formed the basis of the production which was developed with Infinite Opera through collaborative improvisation and rehearsals. Music, sound and choreography was generated for multiple scenes and includes a new interpretation of the Victorian street ballad Won’t You Tell Us Why England.

Collaborations with folk costume makers James Frost and Lottie Wood responded to the stories through the creation of masks, costumes, and symbolic props, drawing on the traditions of Living Newspaper, agitprop theatre, and folk performance.