Premiere of play comes to Northampton

The Royal & Derngate in Northampton has teamed up with three theatres across the country to see them stage a new play entitled The Blue Road.
The Blue RoadThe Blue Road
The Blue Road

The Blue Road can be seen at the Northampton theatre from Friday July 21 to Saturday July 22.

The world premiere of the piece by Laura Lomas,and is a brand new play developed for and with young performers, commissioned by theatres in Plymouth, Derby and Dundee as well as Northampton. Through a hands-on commissioning process that involved over 80 young people from four different locations across the UK, the project is rooted in the experience of what it means to be young in Britain today, and has resulted in a relevant new play bursting with powerful ideas and provocative themes.

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In the forest, in the wake of an unnamed crisis, a group of young people work to make sense of what happened, what it means and what they will do now.

The Blue Road explores memory, loss, living in the aftermath and the human capacity to begin again.

In a process that spanned almost two years, the young people initially participated in the selection of a writer from a shortlist, choosing up-and- coming playwright Laura Lomas, who has been the Channel 4 Playwright in Residence at Clean Break Theatre Company, best known for her plays Joanne (Clean Break/Soho Theatre) and Bird (Derby Theatre and Nottingham Playhouse).

Laura visited each venue for workshops with the young people where they were able to feed ideas into the creation of the script.

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At each theatre a cast of up to 25 young people, aged from 14 to 21, will stage a production of the new play.

To mark the project a film is being created to document the development of the play and the individual productions and the experiences of the young people taking part. The ambition is for the play script to be published, providing a legacy from the project for future years.

The Blue Road can be seen at Royal & Derngate on Friday 21 and Saturday 22 July at 7.45pm. There is also a matinee taking place on Saturday starting at 2.30pm.

Tickets are priced at £9 excluding booking fees.

Due to the adult material in this play, the performances are only recommended for people over the age of 14

For more details or to book tickets in advance call the box office on www.royalandderngate.co.uk or 01604 624811