‘Theatre is the perfect platform’: How young voices shaped new play on climate and nature emergencies

‘Theatre is the perfect platform’: How young voices shaped new play on climate and nature emergencies

It’s taken a cast of people to bring Theatre for Life’s New Forest folklore-based play, Bringing the Outside In, to the stage in a performance that will shine a spotlight on young people’s voices on the climate and nature emergencies. The New Forest National Park Authority sat down with three of them to discuss how this happened.

Bringing the Outside In will follow a final year sixth form student in a soul-stirring exploration of fear, hope, and the importance of community, viewed through a local lens and inspired by Southampton’s urban landscape and the city’s nearby New Forest National Park.  

It will bring attention to topics of climate anxiety in young people and local issues like air pollution, bringing digital storytelling, music, and puppetry to the stage to do so.

From the production’s writer to its actresses and actors, musicians, vocalists, the young voices that shape the story, and everybody in between, the Youth for Climate and Nature (YouCAN) funded project will engage, educate, and entertain audiences. 

Three of the show’s stars – writer Kit Miles and actresses, musicians, and vocalists Imani Okoh and Ella Jump – sat down after a recent rehearsal to discuss their own relationships with nature, what they’ve learnt while making Bringing the Outside In, and what they hope to achieve through the process.  

‘A highlight from working on this for me has been reconnecting with where I’m from and really seeing the New Forest in a different light,’ said Kit Miles (they/them), who wrote the play. 

‘It’s somewhere magical and somewhere exciting that has always felt like it’s just been there and always will be. But, there’s also an understanding now that it’s a real privilege to be able to access that, and it shouldn’t have to be.’ 

The 23-year-old said: ‘When you grow up in rural spaces you forget that not everybody has access to those places and not everybody has the understanding of how important those spaces are to mental wellbeing, to a sense of community, or to your sense of connection to the world around you.’ 

Kit said working with young people and adults from urban areas like nearby Southampton while developing Bringing the Outside In highlighted the barriers people face accessing green spaces on their doorstep.  

They said this included various reasons like public and private transport issues, as well as a perception the New Forest wasn’t for them or that ‘it’s for some reason too different’. 

‘This project has really shown me that there’s a desire to come into this green space,’ Kit said. ‘And, when people from urban backgrounds do come, they feel a greater sense of connection with nature.’ 

Actress and vocalist Imani Okoh (she/her) plays main character, Amber, and said she was drawn to Bringing the Outside In because she’d always felt strongly about climate action but hadn’t felt empowered or knowledgeable enough to act on it before.  

‘When I saw this project advertised, I knew that was clearly something in the heart of the show – understanding, educating, and actively encouraging people to help in their own way. 

‘As a theatremaker, I felt this was the perfect way I could enact my way of helping in the way I know how. That for me is the main benefit I’ve found being on this project.’ 

Fellow Bringing the Outside In actress and musician, Ella Jump (she/her), joined Imani in her praise of the YouCAN-funded performance and noted how the three-year span of the show from research through to performances and tour have given her the opportunity to learn.  

‘To implement that into a text that’s shaped for young people and people in the community, I thought was really important,’ the 21-year-old said.  

‘The play is about slowly taking steps to reintroduce green spaces into people’s lives, because some people might never have thought they could go to the New Forest, or that it’s just for the people in that area. 

‘We want people who have never experienced that to be able to experience it for the first time and to feel comfortable about it, because everybody should have that right and the freedom to explore, to be curious, and to be connected to nature. I think a lot of that is in the play.’ 

Ella added: ‘I’m really happy we’re focussed so heavily on young people and their voices and opinions. So much of what they’ve said, we’ve got in the play.  

‘It’s not just our project, it’s for everyone. Everyone who showed up and who lives in or near the New Forest. It’s not just something we’ve made, it’s something we’ve collaborated on with so many people.’ 

Imani spoke about the insights and personal education gained from research days, which highlighted poor air quality and pollution as potential ‘anxieties’ for people. 

She also described these sessions as informative and fun experiences that offered practical solutions. The 25-year-old said: ‘I’ve always felt strongly about preserving our green spaces, even though I grew up in a place that didn’t have many.  

‘The site specific sessions were a space for me to be able to be curious. I was there as a facilitator and a theatremaker, but I was a participant as well. It was just magical for me to walk around the New Forest.’ 

Imani continued: ‘Although I’m playing Amber and she’s a completely different person I do relate to her in a sense through her climate anxiety and how heavily she feels it.  

‘I haven’t felt it to that extent personally, but I can understand where she’s coming from and I feel it’s a very relatable thing that a lot of people will feel or have felt. It’s so truthful and so human.’ 

Kit spoke about the lasting impression a play they saw as a child left on them and said: ‘I remember the experience, I remember going into the theatre, and I remember sitting down.  

‘I remember watching the play and being in awe of the fact this was happening right in front of me. From the age of five, it made me think: This is how you do it, this is how you tell people something – and, since then, that’s been it.’ 

‘Theatre is the way to engage with people in a way that nothing else can. Theatre requires a community. You have to enter a room full of people and watch something together. In order to have climate action, you have to have a community action.’

Imani said: ‘With regards to the climate crisis, there’s all of this written information and educational information and all of these things in books, in articles, or on TV, but not everybody responds to that. I prefer experiencing something.  

‘For me, it’s another form of climate action. It’s another way that someone else with a different brain or different mindset might be able to access this issue, so I feel like a theatre performance is a perfect way to address climate change.  

‘If I’d seen a show like this when I was younger, maybe I would have known how to talk about it. Theatre is the perfect platform to discuss the changing climate.’ 

Artistic Director at YouCAN partner and community arts organisation Theatre for Life, Michelle Smith (she/her) introduced Bringing the Outside In and said: ‘By focussing on air pollution, we aim to shed light on how this crisis affects the most vulnerable and marginalised communities in our local city of Southampton.’  

She said it has become crucial to address health concerns that surround increased respiratory issues and asthma and added: ‘We want to acknowledge nature’s importance in improving community action and helping to mitigate pollution, whilst supporting our overall health and wellbeing.’  

Bringing the Outside In will debut on 15 July at MAST Mayflower in Southampton before going on tour in 2026. Ticket information and ways to book can be found here. 

Theatre for Life’s Bringing the Outside In comes as part of the Youth for Climate and Nature (YouCAN) scheme – a partnership project led by the New Forest National Park Authority and supported with a Climate Action Fund grant from The National Lottery Community Fund, which is the largest community funder in the UK.  

The YouCAN scheme, made possible thanks to National Lottery players, is aimed at 11- to 25-year-olds to encourage more community-led action to tackle the nature and climate emergencies. Find out more about YouCAN here.