Have a look around on your way to and from work: young London professionals and young Londoners don’t often go hand in hand (pun intended), living instead in parallel but divided realms of the metropolis. With mortgages to consider, paydays to count to and additions to plan – does anyone even remember what happens on the other side of the early to mid 20s?

If you’re curious (not to mention socially responsible) head to Tales from the MP3, a piece by 20 Stories High, stopping at The Unicorn Theatre on its national tour. This verbatim, recorded delivery show hands over the stage to young Liverpudlians, who then refuse to hold back whether it’s religion or sex or ethnicity that’s on the table; gender and culture identity swaps are included. With days to go before the London run, 20 Stories High Co Artistic Director Julia Samuels talks to us about attracting younger audiences to the theatre, what recorded delivery brings to a show, and what decision-makers might learn should they get a ticket.

Run Riot: How did Tales from the MP3 come about?

Julia Samuels: In 2012, we had just started a Young Actors Company, which was a new group for some of the more experienced members of our Youth Theatre. They had said they wanted to do something really new, different and challenging for their first project. I’d become interested in verbatim theatre, and in particular the Recorded Delivery technique of performance – where the actors have real interviews playing through headphones during the show. So they’re hearing the real words and they’re repeating them as they hear them. It gives a really powerful, authentic, immediate performance, which I found really exciting.

We didn’t know what the piece was going to be about at that point. So we went about interviewing lots of different people with stories to tell and an eclectic range of ages and experiences. We knew that we wanted it be personal stories of people who lived in our local community and something that resonated politically.

However, the nature of the group is that there are a lot of very opinionated people in the group, so people would say, ’Let’s do it about this and somebody else would be like ‘let’s not do it about that’ so there were lots of lively debates about it and hadn’t solved that very important issue.

And there was one moment during rehearsal when discussing adding additional rehearsal dates that one of the group said ‘I’m not being funny or nothing Julia but we don’t even like each other’ and it just clicked inside me: OK that’s what theshow needs to be about.. This needed to be a story about a group who have been around each other for years but don’t really know each other that well, who get to know each other a bit better throughout doing this show.

Run Riot: Did anything crop up during the interviewing process that surprised you in any way, not just when it comes to individual actors, but also the issues relevant to young people today?

Julia Samuels: I spend a lot of time working with young people, so no I wasn’t surprised in general about the things they talked about…identity, family, culture, relationships, their childhoods, their hopes for the future and so on.

However, as individuals, yes there were lots of surprising moments – where people revealed stories, perspectives or details that they’d never shared before, and you really got to understand what made that person who they are today.

And in general I felt really surprised about how comfortable they were being - very open and honest. Especially in the context of a group that didn’t necessarily trust each other very well.

Run Riot: In the show actors take on the roles of other company members, rather than playing themselves. How did this decision shape the piece? Do you think it influenced the relationships within the group?

Julia Samuels: From the beginning, when we’d just been practising the technique, they often played each other, and we’d always really enjoyed that, especially when people swapped gender and cultural background – and it always gave a really interesting shift in perspective for the performance. So when I realised that the show had to be about themselves, it was always necessarily going to be cast that way.

In terms of shaping the piece, yes it’s become really central to the whole thing. It allows us to explore some of our experiences and opinions. For example when you’ve got a black female voice talking about the challenges black males face in society – but it’s played by a black male – that gives you something different. And when you have a lad talking about how he doesn’t want to marry a fat woman, but that’s coming out of a woman’s mouth – that allows you to see how these things are heard, as well as how they are spoken, if you see what I mean.  It’s all about shifting perspective and then being able to question and reflect on what you’ve heard.

In terms of their relationships, they have undoubtedly grown and developed through playing each other. It’s a very intimate thing to do. The group take the responsibility of playing each other very seriously. They want to do each other justice and be truthful. And it’s also entertaining and funny too – they’ve had a lot of fun playing each other!

Run Riot: What place does Liverpool have in Tales from the MP3? Is the piece partly a reflection on socio-economic, cultural or political challenges in the city or the region?

Julia Samuels: In a way Liverpool is almost an additional character in the piece. It’s always there, being referred to and referenced. Sometimes that’s with love and sometimes it’s seen as limiting and harsh.

In most of the piece, the group aren’t analysing the world around them, they are just offering reflections and experiences that show the audience their world and how they see it. In editing the piece, I suppose I drew out themes and questions, which paint a picture of what it is to grow up in this city at this time in history.

There’s not something in particular we’re trying to say, but I do think that as and when our decision-makers see the piece, they can learn a lot about the challenges young people face, some of the opportunities and support they really need, and the incredible qualities and abilities they have to offer.

Run Riot: Can you tell our readers more about 20 Stories High Young Actors Company? What has the experience of the first professional tour brought to the atmosphere and the group?

Julia Samuels: The Young Actors Company are a fantastic group of young adults. Most of this group have been working with us since 2008, so we know them very well, and have known them for a lot of those tricky teenage years. Some of them are studying, some of them work, and some are looking for work at the moment.

We meet each week and do a variety of skills workshops and performance projects. Usually, at 20 Stories High we have two distinct strands of work: Participation (centring on our Youth Theatre and Young Actors Company) and National Touring (professional productions). So it’s really exciting for us that for Tales from the MP3, we’ve brought the strands together and we’ve employed our young people as professional actors. The group have risen to the challenge brilliantly: confidently and professionally. We’re really impressed!

Run Riot: 20 Stories High has a Youth Advisory Board - what’s their role within the company? How would you describe the day-to-day dialogue you have with your audience members or their ‘representatives’?

Julia Samuels: Our Youth Advisory Board is made up of members of the Youth Theatre and Young Actors Company, who meet monthly to influence decision-making within the participation programme, and across the company more broadly. They get involved in various things from recruitment of staff, marketing, fundraising, long-term planning.

I think we have a lot of dialogue with our ‘audiences’. As a company that makes work for young audience, it was always important to us that we had a deep and ongoing creative, social and political conversation with young people.  It was never going to be possible or in any way desirable for us to make work that toured to young people without involving them in the creative processes. So our ideas are developed with our participants: their stories, ideas, questions and art-forms inspire the work of the company.  

Run Riot: What’s your view on theatre for young people in the UK? How do we make sure today’s younger generations become tomorrow’s adult theatregoers?

Julia Samuels: In general, I would say that most theatre is for a certain type of audience – who are predominantly white, middle-class and not so young.

I feel passionately that if we are to attract younger and more diverse audiences to the theatre, the work that we create needs to reflect their worlds, their stories, their questions, their art-forms. There are some companies and venues in the UK who really try to make this happen – and when it does happen, it’s very exciting. There’s nothing better than when a young audience come out of an auditorium buzzing with ideas, thoughts, emotion and questions.

Tales from the MP3

Unicorn Theatre

11-13 September