Age UK Camden and Hampstead Theatre

From November 2024 to February 2025, 30 members of the Age UK Camden took part in a series of 13 creative writing workshops hosted by Hampstead Theatre and funded by Camden Council. This culminated in a sharing of the work performed by professional actors at Hampstead Theatre to a packed audience of over 70 people. 

Writer Martha Watson-Allpress was the lead script writer and brought together and eclectic mix of poetry, creative writing, and scripted pieces written by our community. The group came together to write a play about their experiences of ageing and to challenge the stereotypes around getting older. The team at Hampstead Theatre worked with a range of different people who are in touch with Age UK Camden, including members of the Great Camden Minds group and the Greene King coffee morning group

The standard and skill of the writing was widely acknowledged by all to be of and industry standard and embraced themes of immigration, computer science, literature friendship and age.

Our community members thoroughly enjoyed being engaged in this project, made new friends, shared their life experiences and developed new skills. Some are now even working on their own plays! It was also a wonderful forum in which our broader work at Age UK Camden was highlighted and celebrated.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to our friends at Hampstead Theatre for creating such a vibrant, safe, and inspiring atmosphere that empowered our members to get stuck in and really explore their creative side. All the writing from the performance was incredible and it was a delight to see everyone’s confidence with writing improve as the weeks went on.

Thank you to Camden Council for funding the project, Belsize Councillors for supporting the project, and particularly Cllr Judy Dixey. Workshops such as these are so important for nurturing and empowering our older community.