The System

Inspired by The Fall, Victory Condition, B and Road, The Young Agitators are creating an event which acknowledges and addresses questions around the title The System. They are young people who have been involved with Young Court as writers, actors, directors, designers and producers.

The Young Agitators have put a call out to Young Court creatives aged 10 – 25 to gather installations, poetry, video, discussions and performances for The System.

Throughout the day on 14 Oct, the public are invited to come and explore the results of this call out. Some will take place in the theatre’s public spaces, including:

• Ballot Boxes
  In the run up to the event and throughout the day itself, a ballot box will be present at the Royal Court with suggestion slips asking the audience “what change can an individual make?”. These changes will be actioned by the Young Agitators, Royal Court staff, casts and creatives.
• Identifying Systems
  Around the building you will find installations identifying the different systems we belong to, be it class, education, race, gender or so on.
• They came for…
  In response to discussions around action and silence, the Young Agitators have commissioned a poet to write a response to Martin Niemoller’s quote First they came… to be experienced in silence and alone.
• Writer Q&A videos
  Head to the Bar & Kitchen and Balcony Bar where you will be able to watch filmed interviews hosted by the Young Agitators with playwrights Guillermo Calderón, Chris Thorpe and the cast of The Fall.

Meanwhile in The Site there will be two free but ticketed events.

WHAT IF THERE WERE NO RULES? [1pm, The Site]
This event is free but ticketed, to book please click here

Throughout the years, our 9 – 12 year old Primetime playwrights have submitted plays to us in response to the provocation: what if there were no rules? 

Come along to The Site at 1pm to watch eight new plays in a rehearsed reading.

Writers: Andrei Cotet, Archie Hobbs, Denise Candengue, Minna Lipton, Nikesh Kunverji, Syji Selvam Jawahar, Toni Almonte, Yajnesh Kunverji
Director: Grace Gummer

ARE WE TOO IMPATIENT FOR CHANGE? [4:30pm, JTD]

The Young Agitators are hosting a panel discussion with activists and key speakers who work against, within or for systems to ask if we are too impatient for change. Panellists include:

Maya Goodfellow is a writer and researcher. She has written for Media Diversified, the New Statesman, Prospect and the Guardian. Her work focuses on politics, gender and race. She is currently a PhD candidate at SOAS.

Holly Rigby is a secondary school teacher in Elephant and Castle, where she runs the youth slam poetry collective Globe Poets. She is an activist with Momentum and one of the co-founders of the viral #Grime4Corbyn campaign. She recently hosted the interactive theatre show ‘The Friday Night Effect’ at the Edinburgh Fringe, which explored how young women are affected by mental health and domestic violence.

Jane Harris and her team lead our charity’s work to help society as a whole understand autism. The team makes sure national and local government policy reflects a better understanding of autism as well as helping the public to understand how they can interact better with autistic children and adults. This includes supporting over 100 local NAS branches to engage with politicians and the public, recruiting volunteers more generally and working with the media to create more understanding of autism and our charity’s work.

IS NO SYSTEM BETTER THAN A BAD SYSTEM? [5:30pm, The Site]
This event is free but ticketed, to book please click here

Young Court playwrights have submitted plays in response to the provocation: is no system better than a bad system?

See four new pieces in a rehearsed reading at 5:30pm.

Writers: Ryan Cameron, Matthew Gardner, Serafina Cusack and Zeyana Yussuf
Director: Grace Gummer

Have your say: fill in our form and send it to youngcourt@royalcourttheatre.com to have your ideas included in The System.