Young People as Legislators: Legislative Theatre and Youth Parliament

Abstract

Young People as Legislators is the result of a six-month Legislative Theatre project with Collective Encounters Youth Theatre, Youth Focus NW and Youth Parliament UK. The project formed part of a wider scheme of practice as research that explored youth theatre practice as political engagement for young people. Legislative Theatre practice was utilized to work alongside the Youth Parliament’s Make Your Mark scheme, an annual poll for young people to decide on campaigning issues. In this article, I consider three elements: tokenism in youth engagement, differing experiences between artistic process and product, and applied theatre’s inability to develop long-term effects. Employing the critical theories of Paulo Freire, the article regards the practice as a failed attempt to develop critical youth theatre practice. I argue that the Legislative Theatre project led to uncritical engagement and no political change due to partner organizations regarding the theatre practice as a service to satisfy their own targets and requirements.