Synopsis
Nominated for Community Award at The Stage Awards 2025
Five powerful new plays by some of the most exciting artists working in the UK today – created with and for young people. Developed as part of Wonder Fools’ international project Positive Stories for Negative Times, which has engaged over 11,000 young people across 24 countries including the UK, South Africa, India, USA, Canada, Italy and Australia. Co-commissioned by Wonder Fools and the Traverse Theatre, these bold, imaginative plays span a wide range of styles, themes and forms – designed for ages 6–25. They invite young people to explore big ideas, ask urgent questions and take creative risks. The plays in this volume are:
We Ain't Movin' by Travis Alabanza
Ages 12-18
Roman Cardboard Swift by Ella Hickson
Ages 12-25
Hold Me Closer Bunny Baxter by James Ley
Ages 14-25
Careful What You Wish For by Hannah Low
Ages 6-12
The Book of Spin by Mammalian Diving Reflex
Ages 12-25
Positive Stories For Negative Times began in response to the loss of creative spaces during the pandemic – offering young people the chance to connect, express themselves and make new work. Now an international programme, it includes hundreds of participating groups around the world, a Youth Board who dramaturg every commissioned play, a CPD programme for leaders, and four youth theatre festivals across Scotland taking place in summer 2025.
Supported by Creative Scotland, the Gannochy Trust, Hugh Fraser Foundation, William Syson Foundation, Trades House of Glasgow Commonweal Fund and Gordon Fraser Foundation.
About the Authors
Ella Hickson is an award-winning playwright whose work has been performed throughout the UK and abroad. Her recent play ‘Anna’, a sonic collaboration with Ben and Max Ringham, opened at the National Theatre in Spring, 2019. Other theatre includes, 'Swive’ (2019) at The Globe, ‘The Writer’ (2018) and ‘Oil’ (2016) at The Almeida Theatre, and ‘Wendy and Peter Pan’ (2015) at The Royal Shakespeare Company. She is a member of the Royal Society of Literature, a MacDowell Fellow and recipient of The Catherine Johnson Award. She is developing new work with The Old Vic, Tim Minchin and The National Theatre, and television projects with Kudos Productions and Warp Films.
Hannah Low is a Chinese-Scottish writer, actor and youth theatre practitioner based in Edinburgh Scotland who graduated in 2019 with a First Class BA(Hons) degree in Musical Theatre. Most recently, Hannah was selected as a mentee for Playwright’s Studio Scotland’s 2024 programme, working with Douglas Maxwell to develop a new play. Hannah makes vibrant, narrative-led, interdisciplinary work for stage. Her projects are currently supported by Vanishing Point and Imaginate, and funded by Creative Scotland and the Edinburgh City Council Diversity and Inclusion fund.
Travis Alabanza is a performer, writer and theatre-maker. In 2016/17 they became the youngest recipient of the artist-in-residence at the Tate workshop programme, starred in Scottee’s theatre production Putting Words in your Mouth at the Roundhouse and the Royal Exchange adaptation of Derek Jarman’s Jubilee, performed in venues such as V&A, Tate, ICA, the Roundhouse and Barbican – and had their work featured in The Guardian, BBC, Huck Magazine and more. Known for increasingly paving much of the UK conversation around trans politics, Alabanza has become a staple of the London queer scene and further afield. Their debut poetry book Before I step Outside (you love me) released in 2017 has been shipped to over 19 countries worldwide and listed as one of the top trans literary books of 2017. Alabanza’s unique mixture of performance, poetry, style, political views and risk-taking performances has taken them across the country, Europe and internationally – working regularly with artists such as Alok Vaid-Menon, Duckie, David Hoyle, Scottee and others.
Mammalian Diving Reflex creates performances by looking for contradictions to whip into aesthetically scintillating experiences. They create site and social-specific performance events, theatre productions, participatory gallery installations, videos, art objects and theoretical texts to foster dialogue and dismantle barriers between individuals of all backgrounds by bringing people together in new and unusual ways.
Edinburgh-based writer James Ley has written plays for A Play, A Pie and A Pint, Glasgay! and The Edinburgh Festival Fringe and his work has been performed at Ņran Mór, The Citizens Theatre, The Tron Theatre and The CCA. Mentored through the Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland and a finalist in Glasgay!’s Playfest 2010 competition, he was awarded an Arts Council Literature Residency at CovePark in 2010 and has recently been awarded a grant from The Tom McGrath Trust.
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