Come Yew In!
June 2017

COME YEW IN! was our reaction to the Brexit referendum. Norwich is a city whose long prosperity, culture and identity has been based on large-scale migrations. We may not be the most obviously multi-cultural of places but we do have a vital and important history of welcome.

Come Yew In! A Proud History of Strangers in Norwich was a free, outdoor, city wide, trans-historical variety show that highlighted stories about incomers and invigorated a sense of pride in our tolerant, internationalist city. 

The project involved two months of citizen research, five weeks of intensive writing and creative responses, and three months of committed rehearsal with an army of Common Lot volunteers: 24 cast, five musicians, ten back stage team, 12 researchers and a professional production team of five.

We did ten shows in magnificent weather, touring to open spaces across the city.

In the process of the show’s making, we also enlisted the support of five primary schools who each contributed a short sketch or song, taking part in two shows each.

Winner of 2017 Norfolk Arts Awards – EDP People’s Choice for a large organisation. Ten shows, 747 participants, 3500 audience members, £7000 raised in donations for refugee support charities.

The Come Yew In! Songbook is here

Read our CYI!  evaluation report here

The Common Lot have managed to conjure up a show that combines the entertainment of traditional music-hall with an educational and thoroughly enjoyable interactive experience, and in so doing provide the perfect antidote to xenophobic propaganda and rhetoric.
Review, Outline Magazine

"I laughed and cried. It was happy, sad, informative and made me proud to be Norfolk born and bred and living here in our fine city. Opened my eyes a little wider to the barriers and issues that 'strangers' have.... I'm smiling at all I meet now on the street, to show I'm happy to be sharing the world with them"
Audience member - via website

"As a school, we were very proud to be a part of Come Yew In!. It was an ambitious and important project that successfully engaged many of our pupils and our wider school community with Norwich’s varied and fascinating history as a centre of migration. It has left us interested in exploring how to further extend the dialogue about migration that it has helped to spark in our community."
Jake Brown , Head of PHSE ,School of Sanctuary Lead, Avenues Junior School