NEWS: Ankles – A Book Of Spells @ Northern Stage

Based upon a wealth of real-life experiences amassed from interactive workshops with young women and non-binary people from both East End schools and Newcastle’s Shieldfield Youth Project, BRASH Theatre Company have conjured up Ankles, a multi-disciplinary production which explores the complexities of how the educational system, with its oft-demeaning school uniform policies, enables a culture of victim-blaming and sexual harassment.

The production, which comes to Northern Stage on Thursday 9^th and Friday 10^th June, makes a compelling argument that children need to be discouraged from thinking that the responsibility of preventing gendered violence should only fall upon girls, and instead emphasising the part that every person, of every gender and age group, has to play in preventing these behaviours from persisting in society as a whole.

As BRASH’s Artistic Director Bethan Kitchen makes clear: “It forces adults to sit up, listen and make the changes necessary to make the world a safer, fairer place for people of all genders.” All roles within the production are handled by actor Brogan Gilbert (who’s previously starred in the BBC’s The Dumping Ground and Inside Out), rapper/performer Kay Greyson and a debut co-lead performance from India Barnett, with sound design and scoring from Roma Yagnik.

Ankles: A Book Of Spells is performed at Northern Stage, Newcastle on Thursday 9^th and Friday 10^th June.