Thursday, March 28, 2024
EntertainmentPREVIEW: An unflinching insight into the lives of children without adults

PREVIEW: An unflinching insight into the lives of children without adults

NYTP presents: [BLANK]

(c) NYTP

What do teenagers do when adults can’t be there for them? How will they cope with life’s emotional and practical challenges? What happens when they can’t?

For the National Theatre’s Connections festival, award-winning playwright and screenwriter Alice Birch (Lady Macbeth, Revolt, She Said, We Want You to Watch) worked with prison theatre company Clean Break to write [BLANK], a collection of uncompromisingly observed scenes that cast a spotlight into the hidden world of children without adults.

Adapted, constructed and performed by a cast of young people from the north east of England, NYTP’s production is unforgettable for its evocation of trauma, resilience, friendship and hope.

Northern Youth Theatre Project was founded in 2012, attached to a large comprehensive school in Newcastle upon Tyne, before becoming an independent registered charity.

Welcoming young people of all abilities and disabilities, with no fees or auditions, the group is run by its members. Since its first production, a workshopped piece about the 2011 riots, NYTP has participated in NT Connections every year – performing at Newcastle’s Northern Stage – and in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Open Stages, presenting its own abridgement of Macbeth at The Dell, Stratford-upon-Avon. In 2017, NYTP brought James Graham’s hard-hitting Bassett, dealing with the impact of war and politics on children, to the Fringe.

Related Stories