Chatting with... playwright Debris Stevenson

My Brother’s a Genius is an original play written by Debris Stevenson, developed through conversations with young people across the nation as part of Theatre Centre’s acclaimed Future Makers process. We chatted with her about creating the play, her own experiences, and the importance of writing with young people.

How did you come up with the idea for the play?

The only part of this play that is fact is the title - my real life brother is, in fact, a genius.

And one day I started thinking about how my dyslexia meant I couldn’t read till I was 11, and that, plus a genius brother, left me branded an ‘idiot’. I wanted to unpack that feeling from an entirely fictional yet truthful perspective and therein the twins Luke and Daisy and their ambitions to fly were born.

Why do you think new writing made with and for young people is important?

My personal strap-line is ‘The body is the music, is the word’.

I learnt to read and write through Grime music because it was an introduction to language through the body, the music and the word. Now I understand the neurodivergence of my own brain, I understand that I think laterally and to isolate words to the page removes a context that makes them very hard for me to understand. As a result, I've never been one of those writers who hides in their cave - I like to develop words in spaces with people and their physicalities and rhythms.

I've worked with NYT like that for many years and have always been a fan of Theatre Centre because I know they have a similar practice. I love the minds of young people - I love a question - so to be developing the work in rooms with such inquisitive, playful minds has been a joy. To have my little desk set up where amazing young talent is bringing Luke and Daisy to life is such a rare privilege and makes this script feel like a show, not just for young people, but made with young people, which is 100% what my practice is about.

These young people are shaping, informing and challenging the work in real time.

How has working with young people through Theatre Centre and the Future Makers process influenced your writing?

I would say Genius is not just a show ABOUT neurodivergence, it is a show MADE WITH neurodivergence. At the heart of this show is the shame I hold, spending a lot of my life thinking inherent parts of my brain were ‘wrong’ or ‘stupid’ or something I ‘endure’. In this show I wanted to follow the parts of myself I had been taught to fight - and there has been something so healing about holding that principle at the centre of these spaces.

To see young people be comfortable in themselves - to see little boxes open in their mind around what is possible with their art but also with their lives - has been beautiful. It feels like work that isn’t just giving the young people very tangible tools for a career in this industry, but also just tools to navigate life. I want this to be collaborative.

I'm still learning about how we make the most accessible space, workshop and show, and I hope the young people we work with feel they are given the tools, space and safety to contribute to what that looks and feels like. I want this show to be a space to dream about what's possible in theatre, at school, at home and in our own beautiful, diverse, minds.

What do you think and hope the young people you worked with got from participating in this process?

That despite living in very difficult times, they have exceptional minds.

It's my favourite place to be to be honest, writing beside their wonderful imaginations. I also think I'm learning a lot about how school is the same and how it’s changed and how young people are and aren’t navigating that. I hope this show can bring us closer to understanding how we best meet the needs of all young people.

We have a long way to go, but these young people also give me hope. Change starts in our imaginations.

What key observations have you found through working closely with young people?

How do they see the world? What are their concerns? What brings them joy? What do they think about in terms of writing and writing for theatre?

I've been so pleasantly surprised by the level of enthusiasm, curiosity, hope, and creativity in relation to theatre. There’s been such an eagerness. My style of writing is quite unusual, and I'm an actor as well, and even when I perform my work, it can be technically quite challenging. And I wasn't sure how young people were going to respond to that, but I feel like there is such an appetite for the challenge.

Seeing them spending hours working out how to fly with different contraptions, playing with sound and music... there's just been a real playfulness. And I think they're really open about the challenges and the difficulty of life as an adolescent person, particularly in these times, but I think in that creativity and innovation and excitement and tenacity, I really find hope for what theatre still can do and should do, which is enable us to understand each other and ourselves and imagine a future better than our present. To find solutions, to innovate... and that's harder and harder as an artist, you know? And I say that particularly as one from a working class background, because sometimes I can lose hope. I think being in the room with these young people sort of gives me that kick up the ass that I need, to be honest. I feel like what I'm coming away with is the same creativity and innovation of like, finding the path from A to Z, even if you don't know how to read the alphabet, you know, which is the situation that was I was in. We found a way.

The area I grew up in, people made music out of wooden decks and PlayStations. That sort of innovation, of scaling tower blocks to erect pirate radio station aerials to communicate the things you wanted to say to a world you didn't even really know existed because you hadn't been there. But you can imagine going and you connecting with other people - I feel like that's the kind of energy in the room.

About Debris Stevenson

Debris Stevenson is a playwright, Grime poet, multi-disciplinary artist, neurodivergent academic and professional raver whose work explores the intersectional, unexpected, and unjust.

Debris has worked in over 30 countries, raised over £300K with her company The Mouthy Poets, designed academic poetry modules, and her grime musical Poet in da Corner (Royal Court) toured nationally in 2020. Debris had her screen acting debut in Medusa Deluxe (BFI, BBC) at Locarno Film Festival in 2022.

Debris recently co-adapted Cyrano De Bergerac for the Royal Shakespeare Company alongside Simon Evans, starring Adrian Lester which received 5* reviews in The Times, The Stage and WhatsOnStage.

Debris is also completing a fully funded practice-based PhD studentship in grime lyricism as narrative form at Oxford Brookes University and when she isn't writing or studying she can be found dancing at carnivals, parties and prides around the world for the likes of Red Bull Music Academy, The Heatwave and sometimes, just for fun.

My Brother's a Genius tours to the SJT on March 5 & 6. Get tickets here, or call the Box Office on 01723 370 541.