Here at Spymonkey we are supporting the #1DayWithoutUs protest.

Our work as a company has been defined by our membership of the EU, providing us with the freedom to collaborate across borders, to take our work to audiences across the continent without hindrance from restrictions of movement of goods and services. These freed0ms we have taken to be natural, and we still do not see that they should be restricted.

Half of our ensemble comes from the European Union – Stephan Kreiss from Germany via Austria, Aitor Basauri from Spain. The other half have married European spouses, and have bilingual, bicultural children.

When we started the company 19 years ago, we took the liberties of the EU at face value and ran with them. They have become a central tenet of the work. We love working with each other. We love making each other laugh with our ridiculousness. We love making you laugh with our ridiculousness. We love insulting each other, in our own and each others’ languages. We love hitting each other. We love covering each other in shaving foam, fake blood, spittle, lycra and fabulous costumes. We love taking our clothes off to demonstrate, without at shadow of a doubt, that we are all human.

We are desperately disappointed that the House of Commons has passed the Article 50 bill without any effective protest. The Labour party have provided no effective opposition to plans for a hard Brexit. The Greens and the Liberal Democrats have become the effective progressive opposition.

We call upon the House of Lords to:

1: demand that those already living and working in the UK, and contributing to the UK economy and cultural life in so many various ways, have their rights to remain protected, above all other Brexit negotiations.

2: demand that those UK people doing the same thing across the EU have their rights to remain protected.

3: demand that the British people have the chance to vote, whether by plebiscite or general election, on the terms of Brexit.

Resist. Resist. Resist.