More than 500 young Londoners will take part in the Tricycle Theatre’s third and biggest ever Tricycle Takeover, its annual festival created and run by people aged 11 to 25-years-old.
For two weeks from 13 to 23 March, the Kilburn venue will host a packed programme of more than 50 events, screenings, performances and masterclasses with the young theatre lovers playing pivotal roles in every aspect of the operation from marketing and working backstage to performing and producing.
Headlining 2016’s Takeover event is a new play created by the Tricycle Theatre’s Young Company. Playing from 17 to 19 March, Bred was created by the company’s talented 15 to 18-year-olds with support from Brook Sexual Health Services and Sussex University to tackle teenagers’ attitude to sex, from how they talk about it to the history of the perception of sex.
Speaking about the innovative two-week event, the Tricycle Theatre’s Artistic Director Indhu Rubasingham commented: “Over the last three years, Takeover has established itself as one of the Tricycle’s annual theatrical highlights. It’s an integral part of our artistic programme and I’m particularly looking forward to seeing the Tricycle Young Company performing on our main stage, in addition to young performers from across the capital.”
Alongside Bred, other highlights from Tricycle Takeover include Switch, a promenade performance taking place throughout the theatre by the Tricycle Young Company, and the return of the National Theatre’s Connections. The scheme will celebrate its 20th anniversary year working with schools to perform new plays by captioning every performance of its run at the Tricycle to enable deaf or hard of hearing audiences to access the plays.
Marking another anniversary, the Tricycle Theatre’s Minding The Gap project will celebrate 10 years with the premiere of a series of new short plays inspired by Alice In Wonderland created and performed by 180 young migrants and refugees, following their weekly drama sessions at the theatre designed to support their English language studies.
Fans of the festival will be able to access more of the performances and events this year with the introduction of the £20 Ticket to Paradise, which offers unlimited access to everything staged as part of the Takeover.
Speaking about this year’s inspirational line-up, Young Company Director Tom Bowtell said: “I’m astonished by the energy and creativity of all 60 members of the Young Company. I believe that the untrammelled minds of young people have the potential to create theatre no-one else could make and I’m in no doubt that the itchy, complicated, vibrant version of Paradise they’ll make during the Takeover will be unusual and extraordinary.”
Full details of all the events taking place in 2016’s Tricycle Takeover can be found on the Tricyle Theatre’s website.