Thought-provoking one-man play about a wrongly imprisoned social justice TikToker comes to Leeds Playhouse this month

Spoken word, expressive lyricism and thought-provoking text are some of the terms that could be used to describe the powerful one-man play Please Do Not Touch written by former Birmingham Poet Laureate Casey Bailey (GrimeBoy, Birmingham Rep). The production opens in Leeds Playhouse’s Bramall Rock Void from 12 – 13 March.

Meet Mason, a social justice TikToker, as he explores heritage houses to uncover the true stories behind the objects that lie within.

After an incident with a Somali Afro comb, Mason finds himself wrongly incarcerated in a Young Offender Institution. Now in the belly of the system he is protesting, how will Mason survive his ordeal and navigate how to keep speaking up when everything is designed to silence him.

Please Do Not Touch, directed by award-winning theatre maker Gail Babb (Stars, Tamasha – OFFIE’S Best New Play 2024) is a co-production between China Plate and Belgrade Theatre in association with Birmingham Hippodrome. The production asks important questions about colonial legacy, contested heritage and how stories are told, while shining a light on the criminal justice system.

Casey Bailey said: “When I embarked on the journey of writing this play, I initially saw it as an extension of my poetry collection of the same name. In early discussions I even described it as a ‘theatre adaptation’ of the collection. Over time I have come to realise that this play should not be an extension, or mutation of the poetry collection, it isn’t a branch off the poetry collection’s tree, it is a different tree in the same orchard.

“Throughout the process of writing this play, at times the poetry became a barrier to the story. I was trying to tell a story around the poems, or to honour the poems when really, I wanted to honour the feeling that the poems came from. It was work throughout the process with Gail Babb, Yaël Shavit and Jade Samuels that really helped me to understand that the poems were the scaffolding for this story, but the story was not written to serve them.

“One of my favourite parts of the process of creating theatre is all the things that happen beyond the page. With Please Do Not Touch this has been the case again. From the start of production, watching the director and actor take an idea in my notebook to a walking, talking representation of the ideas that started this journey for me has been all the inspiration I have needed to keep coming back with fresh ideas, and energy.”

Please Do Not Touch plays at Leeds Playhouse 12 – 13 March. Tickets are available here.