Little Boxes is a one-woman show, taking the audience on a journey through Joann’s life and the ‘boxes’ that have made her who she is today. The hopes and dreams of a child, the frustrations of an acting career, the tensions of being a parent, the grief in losing loved ones, the fear of being… herself.

Described as “funny, touching and at times heartbreaking,” by London Pub Theatres, Joann uses personal anecdotes to highlight assumptions and judgements made about her based on looks, age, gender and background. This phenomenon of classifying people is called ‘social categorization’ by psychologists.

Social categorisation is the process by which people assign categories to themselves and others into differentiated groups. The three major classifiers are race, sex and age however, other dimensions include social status, occupation and sexual orientation.

Once these categorisations are made, they can affect assumptions and behaviours often subconsciously. This can result in stereotypic associations and harmful biases ranging from the relatively trivial eg ‘older people are not very strong’, to hostile and dangerous behaviour being exhibited.

“Born to Irish parents who had come over in the ‘50s to such welcoming signs as ‘No Blacks’, ‘No Dogs’, ‘No Irish’…”

This topic remains salient in 2022, when topics such as gender and racial equality, and social mobilisation continue to be hotly discussed and can sadly polarise people particularly on social media. Ageism, is another important area for discussion. The concept for Little Boxes was born out a discussion Joann had with her then 5-year old daughter, who expressed the desire to be a boy, not a girl. “I did not want my child to be forced into a box, and then I realised, the only way I could lay a path for her was to confront my own boxes. It’s natural for people in our lives to want to force us into nice little boxes,” says Condon, “but the scary thing is, after a period of time, you end up putting yourself in that same box.”

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