Protest Song – 11 December 2025

Tim Price’s Protest Song, currently running at La Mama Experiential Theatre Club, tells the story of one homeless man (David Nellist) whose life was a irrevocably altered by the Occupy London movement. When protesters created an encampment on the steps of the church that Danny already called home, he was initially angered by all of these visitors. However, free food and the chance to wash up helped Danny meet some of his basic needs. Since he no longer needed to panhandle to survive, Danny found himself a place in the kitchen helping the Occupy movement. Danny’s understanding of the politics grew as he learned from his new friends. Though Danny felt these bonds very strongly, he made a wrong move and was rejected by the encampment. At the conclusion of the show, Danny is still on the streets, cursing the movement for providing hope in the form of showing him that he can be a valued, productive member of society with a purpose and genuine connection to others. The protesters essentially provided a simulation of what Danny’s life would be like with a job; the homeless are often barred from employment opportunities because they don’t have a place to wash up, clothes for the interview, ability to print a resume, an email address/phone number to follow up with, etc. Danny’s story rightly shows that there is value in every human being regardless of circumstance. This was something Danny didn’t know, and after the discovery it’s very painful to know his worth and be denied it.

One of the most interesting moments was when a reporter came to the church and interviewed the protesters. Danny was asked what he was doing here, and his reply was, “I’m chopping the carrots.” The reporter continued to press him about why he was chopping carrots for Occupy London specifically, but the truthful answer is that he was there because it’s rehabilitative and he liked having a routine and feeling valued. Despite his alcoholism, broken family, homelessness, and low self esteem, Danny consistently showed up every morning to learn to cook in the kitchen for Occupy London because being needed is life changing. He is no longer “Danny”; he is “Danny from the Kitchen”. He gradually becomes involved in consensus making decision processes and is elated when his ideas are shared by the whole encampment. Everything changes when Danny overhears a conversation between the Occupy leaders debating asking Danny to talk to some of the other homeless people about leaving the encampment because they’re causing trouble or not contributing. Danny does so because he has come to value the Occupy people above all else. He later feels guilty and steals some money to have a party with the homeless people. Occupy literally and symbolically puts their fire out, exposing the movement as not really for every man, but for every man the movement deems worthy.

I have been working in the mental health field for over a decade in various capacities. I’ve been a peer support specialist, a crisis call center worker, a therapist, and a social worker. I’m currently working as a mental health social practitioner in a clubhouse  where we provide all of our members with the exact experience that Danny had. In some cases, literally chopping carrots. Where I work, we emphasize member choice and allow people to work where they want and with whom they want. We are deliberately understaffed so that members are needed to do the work of the day. Danny’s story struck a profound chord with me because it showed both the value in what we do and the importance of not abandoning people. The most heartbreaking part of Danny’s story was the last line in which he identifies that knowing that he can be so much to so many people has destroyed him because the hope makes his current life much harder to bear than it was for the seven years of homelessness leading up to Occupy occupying the place he used to sleep. Danny’s story is proof that there is always a healthy, human person inside the people society tells us not to look at or touch. 

Protest Song magnificently captures the boundaries we place between ourselves and the homeless as it asks a seminal, poignant question. Why are we so reluctant to help the homeless? Even the protesters from Occupy London, who taught Danny to cook and danced with him and shared a vision of how the world could be and gave him purpose and made him laugh, didn’t do any follow up on trying to help him get housed. Danny begins the show panhandling, asking the audience for money and, here in New York, only one person gave. He later passes around the cell phone from his case manager, asking people to put their names in so that the case manager will look favorably upon him and try to help him find a place to live. Danny stops the show to ask the audience if they would touch a homeless person and the answer was unanimously that we would not. There’s even a line in there about how many homeless people we might have passed on our way to the theater. As I left the theater, I thought about the fact that Danny’s story was incredibly profound, but I still have to “be careful” in my own life. This is not to say that Danny’s story failed to make a difference. Protest Song has great power in humanizing the homeless, and showing us that Danny from the Kitchen can do work that is helpful not only for his growth, but also to feed others and to be a part of a functioning society. It’s important for us to think about these ideas when we see a person in need. A person in need can also be a person who is needed, and that can make all the difference in the world.  Protest Song introduces the possibility that we can see each other’s worth if we open our hearts rather than averting our eyes. So many wonderful possibilities can come out of the opportunity to chop carrots— the key is to look after our own and help them find a place to go when they finish helping us.

I attended this performance on a press pass from producer Lou Mirabel and The Press Room.