Theatre to become skatepark for play's premiere

Jesse Jones, from the Royal and Derngate, hopes thousands of youngsters will see the play

A theatre will be "transformed" to reflect a town's skatepark for the world premiere of a play about the influence of the online space on young minds.

Top G's Like Me will be staged at the Royal and Derngate in Northampton next year.

The theatre hopes thousands of young people will see the production.

It follows the success of the ground-breaking Netflix series, Adolescence, in which a teenager is arrested for murder after being bullied online.

According to the Royal and Derngate, Top G's Like Me follows a group of "rudderless" young adults in a "world of seething toxic masculinity, misogyny and questions about consent".

It focuses on the "dangerous, coercive relationships that young people can have with digital algorithms... and poisonous social media".

The auditorium will be "totally transformed" to reflect the Radlands skatepark, which was originally built in 1992 and closed in 2004 because it was deemed to be unprofitable.

It then re-opened in 2012.

The auditorium will be transformed to reflect the Radlands Skatepark

Jesse Jones, the artistic director at the theatre, said: "In our classrooms, online, and on our streets some young people are having ever more misogynistic and extremist views that are parroted verbatim from online personalities.

"We know that it is ever more difficult for young people to escape the grasp of this manipulation, as they are only ever one swipe away from it.

"As the online safety bill establishes in the coming year and parent power begins to move the dial on social media companies' accountability towards the safety of children and young people online, this play is a crucial comment on the challenges young people face, rooted in the heart of Northampton."

The play will be complemented by a workshop which will create 360 pieces of street art.

The TV series, Adolescence, which explores similar themes, was mentioned in Parliament, with one MP calling for it to be screened in schools, claiming it could help counter misogyny and violence against women and girls.

Netflix said it would make the series available to secondary schools.