Where Do We Belong? Northern Stage
Where Do We Belong is a piece of theatre that is produced by the Young Company. The Young Company is for young people aged between 16-21 years old who want to be creative and want to use the arts as that platform.
The Young Company is all about getting a diverse group of young people from a range of background from all over the world together to share, learn, dare and do.
The project is about young people experimenting but also young people working together to work out how to create and discuss what live theatre events can. The young people in the company look at the smallest details like putting markers down on the stage to the biggest details like designing the visuals.
The young people are always learning and expanding their performance arts knowledge all the time through this program. Young Company support young people who are interested in being an actor, MC, spoken word artist or physical theatre performer in the making.
‘From Byker to Berlin
From No Man’s Land to Northumberland
From the North Sea to the Aegean Sea
From Leave to Remain’
I don’t think anyone would disagree in saying that the youth of today are some of the most passionate people. All you have to do is look on social media and you see young people passionately talking about what is important to them.
There are so many issues that young people have to go up against today, but you only have to look at the last 12 months the see what amazing work has been done by young people and how they are not defined by their struggling to succeed but by their successes.
Where Do We Belong is a production that I think everyone should go see as it’s a piece of theatre that is thought-provoking and makes you want to have conversation about our future.
I don’t think adults will every understand the struggle of being a young person in the world today. Louise Ingham who is the associate director for Where Do We Belong talked about how she scheduled the premise for this in Summer 2018 because she knew that we were in a world and country that is in a divided place, let alone knowing what the opinions of the young makers were on the situations happening all across the world.
The young people knew that whatever journey they were going to be taken over the past 9 months that it was going to a challenging journey with the world becoming a different place every day.
This piece looks at everything that you can imagine young people have to think about when it comes to life as a young person in 2019. The piece looks at 14 individual story lines and the difficulties and discussions that young people are having with each other and with themselves all the time.
The first scene the young people throw at the audience is a family being pulled apart by their opinions and the uncertainty of the dreaded Brexit.
The production is a collection of pieces talking about their relationships to land, their values, the online world and the offline world. They talk about topics such a being a LGBTQIA young person in 2019 and how they are affected every day for who they love and how they feel.
The pieces are ever-changing and some are fun with discussing the life as a tenant when your landlord has rules and regulations as long as the street their flat is on in to pieces around what life is like once a family member returns a different person following military service.
There isn’t a subject left untouched in this production they even touch on fast fashion and the way it affects our planet. This production makes you think and leaves you thinking about how all these subjects that effect young people also effect adults but it more about how we respond to their struggles.
The Young Company’s Where Do We Belong is the most inclusive piece of theatre I’ve ever seen. You can see from their passion that this piece is something that is important to them and I would have loved to be in the room when the discussions were happening around this piece as I can only imagine how these conversations were.
I will definitely be looking out for the next production done by the Young Company because I can only imagine where they go next as the world keeps changing.
You can follow the Young Company on Instagram and if you are interested in joining the Young Company you can find more information about them over on the Northern Stage website.
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Disclosure: All Reviews have been provided by gifted opportunities or press access offered to us in return for an open and honest review. All reviews are subject to the opinion of the reviewer.
Review Written by Melissa Marshall from www.melissajanemarshall.co.uk