21–31 May 2025
Public Interest
Common/Wealth
An urgent immersive show on youth culture.
Contains strong language
- Captioned
- Audio described
- BSL interpreted
- Quiet space available
- Wheelchair user access
An urgent immersive show on youth culture by Common/Wealth, Bradford’s political theatre pioneers.
About Public Interest
Are we really all innocent until proven guilty?
Public Interest is an ambitious large-scale show that asks how we challenge the narratives spun about young working-class people in 2025. Part music video, part-political theatre, the show is created for Bradford 2025 by Common/Wealth and premieres at Loading Bay, a new pop-up venue in the heart of the city.
Public Interest confronts racist and classist discrimination within the justice system by exploring real-life cases of Joint Enterprise, a legal doctrine used to charge and convict people who may have played no direct part in a crime. A cast of rappers and DJs tell their stories on their own terms using drill, grime and bassline – the very music so often weaponised against them.
Staged in the basement of a disused city-centre warehouse, and featuring projections, cinematic lighting and basslines you can feel in your bones, Public Interest is a vital and vivid call to action. Are you listening?
Content warnings
See below for more information about content warnings.
Free youth and community group bookings
To book free tickets for a youth or community group, please get in touch with Common/Wealth on [email protected].
School bookings
For school group bookings, please contact our Ticketing team on [email protected].
We recommend school groups attend the Thursday 29 May matinee at 1.30pm. This show includes a post-show discussion, allowing students the opportunity to ask the cast questions.
Visit Loading Bay
Loading Bay is a brand new pop-up arts venue in Bradford City Centre for Bradford 2025.
Join us on Duke Street as we bring a true Bradford 2025 buzz to the heart of the city.
Talks and workshops
Learn about Joint Enterprise and hear directly from those impacted at ‘In Their Own Words: JENGbA Report Launch’.
Saturday 15 March
Common Space, 1-3 John Street Bradford BD1 3JT
3-6pm
How School Exclusion affects Young People with No More Exclusions, Wed 2 April, 6-8pm
This workshop will focus on the experiences of children and young people who have experienced oppressive education and exclusion and the impact this has on them and what steps can be taken for a more inclusive progressive education system. Delivered by No More Exclusions – a Black-led and community-based abolitionist grassroots coalition movement.
Criminalisation of Music and Young People with Adele Oliver, Wed 30 April, 6-8pm
Workshop with Adele Oliver, the author of ‘Deeping it – Colonialism, Culture and Criminalisation of UK Drill.’ The workshop will shine a critical light on UK drill and its fraught relationship with the British legal system. Intervening on current discourse steeped in anti-Blackness and moral panic, this workshop ‘deeps’ how the criminalisation of UK drill cannot be disentangled from histories, technologies, and realities of colonialism, consumerism and more.
Lead image: © Daniel Johnson Gray
Access
Join our access scheme to view access tickets or contact our Ticketing team for more information.Sign up →
Loud music, projection, lighting, strobes and haze will be used in this show.
Wheelchair spaces available
Wheelchair spaces are available at these performances. Join our access scheme to register as a wheelchair user and book your wheelchair space through our website, or get in touch with us on [email protected] to book.
BSL interpreted
BSL interpretation available for some performances. See below to book tickets or contact [email protected]
Audio described
Audio description in English available for some performances. See below to book tickets or contact [email protected]
Audio description is provided through Sennheiser Connect – a mobile app that provides access to hearing loop and audio description services using personal or venue-provided devices.
Mobile phones with the app pre-installed are available at the venue ticket office, and neck-worn induction loops are offered for hearing aid users with a “T” telecoil setting.
Captioned
Captioning will be available at this event. Ticket bookers will receive more information about how to view captions before the show.
Quiet space available
A quiet space and reflection area will be available throughout the performance.
Content warnings
The production includes stories of; Knife Crime, Manslaughter, Murder, Incarceration, Injustice and the Criminalisation of young people and youth culture. Themes of Systemic Racism, Profiling, Police Violence, Corruption and Abuse of power. The production will actively challenge the current UK Justice System through performance, music and open discussion with the attending audience each show. Views and opinions of the audience will be facilitated but won’t be ‘monitored’ and may have additional unknown content warnings.
Some stories will include graphic accounts and unsettling information.
