“They will tell you that legal and illegal are the same as right and wrong. And I’ve told you that you only have to sit still for a moment and watch the pieces move to see what a lie that is.”
Please Do Not Touch is a gripping and thought-provoking new drama that follows Mason, a young social-justice TikToker who explores heritage houses in search of the stories hidden within their collections. When an encounter involving a Somali Afro comb leads to him being wrongly incarcerated in a Young Offender Institution, Mason finds himself confronting the very systems he has spent his life challenging from the outside.
Inside a world shaped by punishment, silence and control, he must learn how to survive, how to stay true to his voice, and how to keep speaking up when everything around him is designed to shut him down. The play asks powerful questions about colonial legacy, ownership, contested heritage and the weight of historical objects — while shining a necessary light on the criminal-justice system and the experience of young Black men within it.
Written by former Birmingham Poet Laureate Casey Bailey and directed by award-winning theatre-maker Gail Babb, this production blends storytelling, poetry and social commentary into a tense and compelling 65-minute performance. It is brought to the stage by China Plate and Belgrade Theatre in association with Birmingham Hippodrome.
Performances:
Thu 29 Jan — 7.30pm
Fri 30 Jan — 7.30pm
Sat 31 Jan — 7.30pm
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