Please Do Not Touch

A young man wearing a matching tracksuit, sitting down looking out towards the audience.

Written by Casey Bailey

Walk around any heritage property or museum and you will see items labelled “Please Do Not Touch”. How many of these were taken from where they belong?

Mason is currently spending his days at HMYOI Brins Heath, having stolen a century old afro comb from a heritage house.

Mason has started writing poetry to process how he’s feeling about the hypocrisy of “Please Do Not Touch” signs being placed on items that were touched and taken from somewhere else in the world…

Please Do Not Touch the play is based on Please Do Not Touch the poetry collection, which you can purchase via Casey’s website here.

“Casey is equally at home as a skilled rapper and a poet of subtle poise and stark honesty. The poems within have formal rigour and thematic punch, unafraid to address pain but also linger on moments of irony, beauty, and transcendence. One of Birmingham’s best and brightest voices, it’s great to see his words in print.” – Vanessa Kisuule

Supported by Birmingham Hippodrome, Arts Activities Cultural Leadership funding from Birmingham City Council and using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Photo © Arnim Friess

In Development

Workshops

Please Do Not Touch featured as part of China Plate’s Bite Size Festival 2022.

Working together with Associate Producer Jade Samuels, the show is currently in development. Casey Bailey and the creative team will be holding space for conversations alongside the communities affected by the plays themes, including Heritage staff and stakeholders, Young Offenders and Nechell’s community group ‘free@last’. We envisage work-in-progress sharing’s of the work in winter 2023 and a full production of Please Do Not Touch in autumn 2024.

For more information, please get in touch with Jade Samuels on [email protected]

Birmingham is famous for its diversity as a city, where people from different cultures, ethnicities, religions, races, abilities, and backgrounds coexist. Arts Council England, Culture Central and Birmingham City Council have identified the need to diversify Birmingham’s arts leaders to better represent the city’s diverse populations.

China Plate has received Arts Activities Cultural Leadership funding from Birmingham City Council to support Jade as a future cultural leader of Birmingham. Alongside her work on producing Please Do Not Touch, they will be mentoring her to reach her goals within the arts sector. Jade is passionate about getting untold, unknown stories, mainly from Midlands artists onto the stages both locally and nationally, this development stage will enable her to grow her existing skill set and realise these ambitions.