Challenging institutional power and the systems meant to protect the UK’s most vulnerable youth, The Big House announces a 2026 season that aims to transform the lives of care leavers and at-risk young people. Three works, directed by The Big House founder Maggie Norris, tell the stories of a pirate radio station denied access to legal channels, a teenager held under constant supervision in an unknown room, and a father forcing a coroner’s court to examine a death in the system. Together, they explore the fundamental question: who does the state decide to censor? Each show has been created with care-affected young people, with The Inquest developed through the Open House Project (OHP), the organisation’s flagship bi-annual programme. Each OHP provides an intensive 12 weeks of support and training, and culminates in an original, full-scale theatre production charged by the collective lived experience of the participating care-affected young people, whilst safeguarding individual stories.
A DoL House opens the season in June at The Big House Islington venue. Each year, more than a thousand vulnerable teenagers are placed under Deprivation of Liberty orders, which authorises severe restriction of freedom – from holding them behind locked doors, removing their phone, and placing them under constant supervision in the name of safety. The production steps inside this hidden system, drawing on interviews with judges, young people and legal experts to explore when protection becomes control. The play follows sixteen-year-old Leyla, who is taken from her children’s home one night and moved to an unknown room in a far-away part of the city. She’s angry. She’s frightened. But she’s not alone. Ever. A DoL House is written by BAFTA winning David Watson (L8r, Housed) and The Big House has partnered with Reset – a not-for-profit organisation developing a community-based alternative to Deprivation of Liberty placements for children aged 12–18.
Debuting in November at The Big House, The Inquest, follows a foster father’s fight for accountability after the death of his son. Developed through the Open House Project and in partnership with INQUEST – the only charity providing specialist expertise on state-related deaths and their investigation to bereaved people, lawyers, civil society, the media and parliamentarians – The Inquest asks how the failures of fragmented services can be identified, accountability enforced, and preventable deaths ended. Maggie Norris and James Meteyard’s story is set three years after the death of Jordan, who took his own life shortly after leaving care and was left unfound for three days. After a tireless fight, the Coroner’s Court agrees to examine the systemic failings behind Jordan’s death. In this clinical court, David learns that a father’s love has no authority. What follows is a harrowing struggle against the machinery of the law, as one man crashes through procedural hurdles in a desperate fight to be heard.
Following an acclaimed debut at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe, Blaze FM will kick off The Big House’s first UK regional tour in September at the Lowry in Salford before stopping at the Bristol Old Vic and the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry in October. An explosive piece of political gig theatre, the play weaves Grime, Garage, and Drill into a story of survival and subculture. Set in mid-2000s Hackney, it follows a local East London pirate radio station, led by father-figure Hughbert, facing the real-world pressures of state censorship, police overreach, and Home Office threats, all while defiantly broadcasting from a council flat. Co-written by acclaimed Grime MC Jammz and award-winning playwright James Meteyard, the production examines the transition from Grime into Drill, the Windrush scandal and freedom of expression, looking to pass the mic to a new generation to challenge the systems that failed them.
The Open House Project is The Big House’s flagship bi-annual programme that explores collective experience, whilst safeguarding individual stories and circumstances. They tackle issues that many deem contentious – challenging systems and attitudes that impact young people. They bring together experienced and talented creative teams to share their expertise, support the work and to inspire their growing community of marginalised young people. Every participant co-creates a personal development plan to secure stable housing, education, and wellbeing, resulting in 90% of graduates reporting a significant boost in confidence and 80% transitioning into meaningful employment or training. By breaking destructive cycles, the project maintains a 99% success rate of participants not reoffending during their support—a stark contrast to the 32.5% national youth reoffending rate.
Founder and director Maggie Norris said, “Every play in this season is about who Britain decides gets a voice and who it decides to silence. The young people we work with are growing up in a country where the gap between those who are listened to and those who are talked over has never felt wider, which begs the question who has the right to be heard? Now more than ever, we need theatre that holds systems to account, that challenges the self-interest that masquerades as policy, and puts the people Britain often ignores squarely centre stage.”
The Big House is a London-based production company and arts charity creating original, risk-taking work with care-affected young people. With smash-hit runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, national tours in partnership with the UK’s leading regional venues, and extraordinary site-specific productions, The Big House consistently produces “world-class” work charged by the lived experience of their membership. The Big House has received six Off West End Awards, the Centre for Social Justice Born to Be Award, two international LOVIE Awards, the Achates Corporate Philanthropy Prize, and was the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport’s 2025 Charity of the Year.
