This new play uses rap to tell the story of people in prison for crimes they didn't commit

Public Interest takes an audience into the real life experiences of those who have been convicted under joint enterprise law for serious crimes they didn’t commit and the impact it has on their families.

It interrogates the criminal justice system and how we inherit laws and broken systems, and asks what we can do to change and challenge the racist and classist systems we’re in.

As a political theatre company, Common/Wealth believes in the power of theatre to bring people together to understand something emotionally and bodily and to spark action. 

Read more:

• Our children are in prison for murders they did not commit. We’re fighting to change the law
• Poet laureate Simon Armitage on his years as a probation officer – and the redemptive power of poetry
• Johnny Vaughan: ‘There’s not many who get out of jail and go on to become the highest-paid man on TV’

An audience learns about how an archaic doctrine from 1846 is governing young people’s lives, how the law works and whilst there is legal jargon within the show – the concept that holds the piece together is that we’re making a music video.

Our show is performed by seven rappers, singers and DJs and looks at how music is criminalised and by extension young people themselves – for engaging in things that young people have always shaped.

The piece is immersive. It happens around you, which we feel is important so the audience doesn’t slip into passivity, which can often happen with more traditional staging. We want an audience to feel in their bones the change that they want to make after experiencing the show. 

To create the show we’ve worked closely with JENGbA (Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association) which is a grassroots organisation dedicating their lives to supporting joint enterprise prisoners and working on all fronts – through politics and media – to change the joint enterprise doctrine. They’ve supported us with research, writing and shaping scenes and connecting us to people who’ve been affected. This close partnership for us is about joining forces. There are so many ways to make change, theatre is one of them and we want to do all we can to amplify the JENGbA campaign. 

The show is called Public Interest because we think it’s important that people – especially working-class people – participate in shaping society. Too often it’s inferred that working-class people are stupid and don’t want to engage.

Theatre can be a tool to communicate dense ideas in an accessible way that empowers people to see their place. We’ve worked with about 15 youth centres and education providers to cast the show and now to engage audiences. We’re giving away 30% of tickets to young people, knowing they’re the ones we need to activate the most and knowing how smart they are, and how young people speak passionately about systemic issues when given the chance. 

Public Interest is part of the Bradford 2025 City of Culture programme, which means we can work at an ambitious scale and increase the reach of the show. The commission has enabled us to pay 20 young people as performers and it’s great the City of Culture team have trusted us to make something political and youth driven – it’s not sanitised in any way. 

Bradford is the youngest city in Europe with 29% of people under 20. The UK is the only country in Western Europe to criminalise young people from the age of 10, the only country in Europe to give life sentences to children. These facts go together.

We didn’t want to create something which evaded the realities of what it means to grow up as a young person in the UK. Public Interest captures the energy of young people, enabling us to take a long hard look at the systems we expect them to navigate, asking how we change them. 

Evie Manning is co-director of Common/Wealth. Public Interest will be performed as part of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture from 21 to 31 May 2025 at the festival’s new pop-up venue Loading Bay. 

Promises are easy to break. Sign Big Issue’s petition for a Poverty Zero law and help us make tackling poverty a legal requirement, not just a policy priority.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. Big Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy of the magazine or get the app from the App Store or Google Play.