Former Economics Editor of Channel 4 News and BBC’s Newsnight Paul Mason is to write and perform in a new show at the Young Vic based on his acclaimed book, Postcapitalism: A Guide To Our Future, directed by the Young Vic’s David Lan.
Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere is a play about revolution. The story of the networked generation, it traces how we got from the optimism of the Arab Spring and the origins of the Occupy Movement to Trump’s election and the present day – through the eyes of Paul Mason. Audiences will participate throughout the promenade performances.
Performed by Mason, Khalid Abdalla, Sirine Saba, and Lara Sawalha, Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere will run Tuesday 28 to Thursday 30 March in the Young Vic’s Maria studio. The show will be filmed for broadcast at a later date by the BBC as part of Performance Live.
Design for Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere is by Jeremy Herbert, with video by Ali Hossaini, light by Nicki Brown and sound by Peter Rice. It will be directed for TV by Tim van Someren. The show is produced in partnership with Totally Theatre Productions.
Tickets for the three performances are free, limited to one per person, and will be allocated via ballot. Audiences can register to enter before 12 noon on Wednesday 22 March.
Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere is one of a series of programmes for BBC Arts called Performance Live – a two-year project, produced in partnership with Arts Council England with Battersea Arts Centre as strand producer, that will challenge a spectrum of exciting artists, producers and arts organisations to produce their own television programmes. The first broadcast of the series was Kate Tempest’s Let Them Eat Chaos in October 2016. Further programmes in the series will be announced in due course.