It’s a drizzly afternoon in October, and under the curved-glass ceiling of an old, quietly imposing Edwardian library building in Homerton, a group of teenagers and twentysomethings are careering around a small rehearsal room, jostling and banging and shouting and squawking to a bruising combination of kicks and snares. It’s not immediately clear what’s going on until director Dominic Garfield sidles over to offer on oblique explanation. “This one’s a bit techy,” he says, eyes focused on the unfolding chaos.
The group are rehearsing for The UK Drill Project, a new theatre show that blends acting, video projections and original music to unpick the tricky relationship between music, criminality and the complex causes of youth violence. It’s a couple of weeks before curtain-up and things are slowly coming together. “I’m not nervous … yet,” says Garfield. A neon rainbow of Post-it notes arcs on the wall behind him, slowly solidifying into a story that has been in the works since 2019, when his HighRise production company bagged the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust award and a chance to perform at the Barbican’s Pit theatre.
