Have You Took The Bins Out – Travel Begins at 40
One of the unquestionable highlights of living or staying in London is the ease of going to the theatre. I don’t mean just the West End, as there are so many small theatres in London, many of which are located above pubs, such as the Drayton Arms. I had never heard of either pub or theatre until I was reviewing Gary Oldman Krapp’s Last Tape at the Royal Court and started talking to the person next to me who was a fellow reviewer. She invited me to a play she was performing in at the Drayton Arms Theatre called Have You Took The Bins Out. Consequently, on a sweltering July evening I found myself watching a play about which I knew little except a passing encounter with one of the cast.
Have You Took The Bins Out
This is the type of performance which made me fall in love with the theatre and London sadly before any of the cast were born. The blackened room was bare apart from a few bin bags strewn around in a circle. The atmosphere was intimate; at one stage one of the audience sat down next to me. Exactly how exploratory theatre should be. After all this is how the likes of Gary Oldman started out.
Have You Took The Bins Out is about a couple who have just moved into their dream home, their possessions still in bags. Soon we realise all is not well. The man leaves the woman to watch the sunset, she has an affair with the washing machine delivery man. The man is about to lose his job. She has a history of drug abuse. He was brought up in a foster home.
It is the final point that is most crucial. Written by Orson Bourne, who also plays Man, Have You Took The Bins Out, explores the effect that being brought up in foster care has upon your later life. Bourne himself was a foster child and the play is part of his process of “taking ownership of my narrative”, as he states in the programme. However, the nameless Man can stand for anyone brought up in care.
Bourne brings a passion to the role, which is matched by Eloise Thody playing his partner Zsazsa. Both of these anchor the play whilst other characters flit in and out to comic effect.
The scenes where the social workers consider a case (possibly Bourne’s, possibly their child, possibly another child) add dynamism, as well as critiquing the stifling bureaucratic nature of the system. Frank Cawley excels as the official who only says “redacted”. He is equally good in the role of Gertrude, Zsazsa’s mother, as the gender roles are reversed between parents much like in a Caryl Churchill play. You might ask why? But asking questions is the nature of plays not necessarily providing the answers.
My only criticism of the play was the negative perception of social workers in the play. Unlike Bourne I have not been inside the system, but social workers do play a vital (and thankless) role in society which perhaps is not reflected here, although the end does try to address the balance.
The direction from Emma McAllister, who also had to step into one of the roles last minute, is extremely polished. All the actors are impressive especially Grace Boag-Matthews as Miz Bakewell.
But deep down this is Bourne’s play. A man with no name who is brought up inside the care system, passed around with his possessions in bin bags. A man who is expected to fail, but who can dream. Have You Took The Bins Out shows the power of those dreams. As Bourne himself writes once more in the programme, “How much value can a life have when it’s carried around in a black bin bag? the answer : A LOT.”
Have You Took The Bins Out
Performed by the Lamp Light Theatre Company, Have You Took The Bins Out plays at the Drayton Arms Theatre until 25 July 2026. If you can’t make this performance, then why not catch another play at the theatre, or one of the many other fringe theatres in London? After this really is where dreams are made real.
Main image: Dexter Robinson (@photodobbie on instagram).
