Hipster theatre company slammed for £55-a-head ‘Cockney dining experience’ with pregnant woman in a tracksuit and wheeler dealer flogging gold
Punters will get a lavish meal for £55 in an 'authentic East End boozer' as they watch the 'hilarious festive drama'
A HIPSTER theatre company has been slammed for attacking working class Londoners with a "Cockney-themed" dinner - featuring pregnant chavs in tracksuits.
Zebedee Productions put out adverts for its Christmas "dining experience" that showed a wheeler dealer selling watches out of his coat and a glaring thug in an England shirt.
One of the actors was dressed as a pregnant Virgin Mary in a velour tracksuit with a fag hanging out of her mouth.
The Hackney-based company are planning to host Cockney’tivity in an “authentic East End boozer” between December 1 and 22.
Punters forking out £55 will get “three short acts of hilarious festive drama” and a menu including smoked salmon, herb buttered roasted supreme of chicken and handmade mince pies with brandy cream.
But the company was slammed for "poor shaming" working class East Enders after the ads went online yesterday.
Pam Beddard 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.”
Rob Joyce wrote: “Interesting. Their idea of an authentic cockney Christmas is alcoholic pregnancy, moody gold sales at the table and...er...sheep?"
Another Twitter user branded the pictures as “the absolute nadir of moving into people’s neighbourhoods, turning their lives into comedy props and paying £55 to laugh at their expense”.
Zebedee artistic director Zoe Wellman has since apologised for the adverts.
She said: "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.”
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