EWAN GURR: Show vividly underlines true brutality of food poverty

I was invited by writer Tara Osman to a performance of Food Bank As It Is at Assembly Roxy in Edinburgh.

This is a vivid depiction of the brutality of food poverty, which was also performed last year at both Holyrood and Westminster.

Tara opened by stating that she was a nurse-turned-foodbank manager but was not prepared for the people she encountered, many of whom were low-paid workers.

I was most looking forward to the audience interaction at the end, when a man two rows in front of me shot out of his chair halfway through, bawling about the bias towards these lazy workshy waifs spending all their money on beer and fags.

He was thoroughly convincing and shared at the end that an audience member at the performance the previous night took a swing at him, not realising he was an actor.

Several people in the audience had themselves used a foodbank and another man used the word “enlightened” to describe what he saw.

It may have been far from a sell-out show, but it was no less effective in its call to action.