Papatango’s GoWrite gives theatre the voices it needs
July 27, 2026
Photo by Vehbi Koca. L-R: Maia of the Pavilion Study Centre Meadway, Simra of Eden Girls’ School, Lorenzo of Harris Lowe Academy Willesden, Josh Finan.
Sophie Winch explores why access to the arts matters for young people from every background
I am sitting in the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, North London. The expectant buzz has died down, and lights are up on Josh Finan, star of How To Get to Heaven From Belfast, and, currently, presenter of the 2026 Papatango Young Playwrights’ Award.
“This work,” he tells us, “breaks down barriers.”
He is referring to Papatango’s GoWrite, a script-writing programme offered to teenagers across 29 diverse settings, opening up opportunities in theatre for young people who might not otherwise have access to it. Through free workshops with theatre professionals, participants develop their writing skills before seeing their stories brought to life by professional actors. We are about to watch the culmination of this scheme: nine shortlisted monologues, selected from nearly 500 entries, written by young people and performed by professional actors.
The showcase begins; minimal props and an empty stage mean scenes blend into each other, and for a moment, in limbo between a childhood bedroom and a battlefield, I marvel at the wide array of people and situations these writers have conjured. The scaffolding of the programme has allowed for distinct theatrical voices and original ideas to emerge in dazzling colour. I watch in delight as characters materialise on stage: a soldier seeing an enemy as human for the first time, Jack recounting how Jill broke his crown, a resentful arsonist-leaning white-collar-worker.
Photo by Vehbi Koca. Ivan Oyik as Soldier
The three winners, we discover, are a brilliantly funny monologue about a teenager on a mission to create the ‘best’ sandwich (no matter how many illegal borders he must cross); a chillingly atmospheric piece about ‘sinister happenings’ in an abandoned house, and a strikingly original and incisive alternative take on Banksy.
I caught up with Simra, 15, from Eden Girls’ School, afterwards to talk about her monologue The Wall in Walthamstow. “I was sitting in my room with my dad, and there was a newspaper with a photo of Banksy on it,” she says, “My dad said, ‘He’s probably a man from Bristol’ and I thought ‘How do you know?’”. Her answer to this is the character of Somaya, a young Pakistani woman from Simra’s home of Walthamstow, who is secretly the real Banksy. Simran Bhandari, Somaya’s actress, says, “It was great to be able to bring this character to life”.
The creativity of the young people’s writing is brought into luminous relief by the actors. I found it incredibly refreshing to see such a variety of voices given the spotlight like this; each piece felt fresh and vibrant and unique.
In a world where 90% of cultural-sector workers are white and just 8.4% of those working across arts and media come from working-class backgrounds, according to research from the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, giving young people of all backgrounds the artistic voice they deserve is more important than ever.
GoWrite is working against a backdrop of enormous cuts to the arts. The Cultural Learning Alliance’s 2025 Report Card found that 41% of schools are no longer entering children for the Drama GCSE, due both to budget cuts and a perceived lessened importance of creative pursuits. If children do not grow up feeling like theatre is for them, we will have a frighteningly narrow cultural scene, dominated only by the ‘elite’. This would not be a reversion to the cultural elitism of theatre 50 years ago; it would be twice as bad.
Since the 1970s, the proportion of working class actors, musicians and writers has shrunk by half. There’s a cultural illusion that theatre has always been only for those born into family wealth, but many of our most famous playwrights came from working-class backgrounds.
By restricting creativity to schools that can afford it, children miss out on the tangible wellbeing benefits of the arts
This is, in some ways, why theatre is so vibrant and eclectic and transgressive. If we silence those voices, we will, for possibly the first time ever, have comfortable, privileged people in the theatre and very few others. Where will the impetus to write plays come from? Who can show us new perspectives – who will provoke, incite and unsettle us then?
According to the British Theatre Consortium, there’s been a dramatic decline in new playwriting across the UK post-pandemic; we will lose the contemporary heart of theatre. If all we’re left with are re-runs of Stoppard and Shakespeare (once fresh and provocative!), what is the point in preserving its stale, gutted husk?
It’s not just about preserving a rich and interesting cultural scene, though. By restricting creativity to schools that can afford it, children miss out on the tangible benefits of art. This is what makes the work of programmes like GoWrite so important. Creativity has been shown to improve student performance in other GCSE subjects, and it’s fundamentally good for children and young people; according to a report from the University of Manchester, prolonged engagement in artistic pursuits can lead to a boost in wellbeing equivalent to the transition from unemployment to employment.
Theatre – and creativity more broadly – is not just about plays and books and art. It’s about quality of life, cultural progress, and cognitive ability. It is not a neutral action to deprive under-funded schools of the arts.
The attainment gap between private and state schools widens every year. An absence of creativity will only make it worse. Programmes like Papatango’s GoWrite scheme can help push back against this inequality. If we show children from every background that they belong in artistic positions, and amplify their voices, we can begin to bridge the widening gulf. Aeschylus’ Persians, the oldest surviving Greek tragedy, focused on humanising their enemy. Theatre has always been about radical progress, empathy and new perspectives; these are the voices it urgently needs.
If you’re young and looking for cheap theatre tickets, here are some schemes worth looking into!
