A hipster theatre company has been accused of mocking working class Londoners by staging a £55-a-head chav-themed supper club in East End pub.
Hackney-based Zebedee Productions came under fire after ads for its upcoming Christmas “dining experience” featured a pregnant woman, playing the Virgin Mary, in a tracksuit smoking.
Other actors include a “wheeler dealer” selling watches out of his coat and a man wearing an England shirt, glaring into the camera as if itching for a fight.
Cockney’tivity will be staged at an “authentic East End boozer” – the shuttered North Star in Homerton – between December 1 and 22.
For their £55, punters will get “three short acts of hilarious festive drama” and a menu including smoked salmon, pickled radish salad with horseradish cream, “herb buttered roasted supreme of chicken”, and handmade mince pies with brandy cream.
After the publicity shots went online yesterday Zebedee Productions faced accusations online of using “poorface” depictions of working class East Enders.
Pam Beddard, a publicist, tweeted: “And we wonder why what was once the white working class (before the pits/factories shut) is so angry? Anyone else, this’d be a hate crime.”
Another Twitter user described the images as “the absolute nadir of moving into people’s neighbourhoods, turning their lives into comedy props and paying £55 to laugh at their expense”.
One communications executive, Rob Joyce, wrote: “Interesting. Their idea of an authentic cockney Christmas is alcoholic pregnancy, moody gold sales at the table and...er...sheep?
While music PR Stuart Bennett said: “All on board with picketing this.”
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Amid the criticism Zebedee artistic director Zoe Wellman released an apology saying: “We’ve been excited to explore the concept of The Cockney’tivity for a couple of years now, and we’ve always seen it as a proper celebration of East London culture through theatre.
“My mum was born and bred in Gants Hill, and I’ve lived in Hackney for the last 10 years. The whole of the cast is from the East End and Darren (a partner in Zebedee) is a Wood Green boy through and through.
“We’re all really excited about what we’ve been working on, and as a small theatre and production company this is a project really close to home.
“Being from the area ourselves it was never a question of poking fun at a stereotype and those who live in the area, however we are truly sorry for any offence caused.”
In 2014 the planned Hoxton pop-up Death Row Dinners, based on the experience of a prisoner’s last meal, was cancelled following public outcry.
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