About Lung Theatre
Founded in Barnsley in 2012, LUNG is a campaign led verbatim theatre company that tours work nationally. They work closely with different communities to make verbatim theatre and hidden voices heard. LUNG creates work that shines a light on political, social and economic issues in modern Britain, using people’s actual words to tell their stories.
LUNG’s work is published by Bloomsbury. They have strong partnerships with Leeds Playhouse, The Lowry, Battersea Arts Centre and have developed work at the National Theatre Studio.
LUNG’s work sits across 4 strands: the work, schools, participation and campaigns. Previous productions include The 56, Chilcot, E15, Trojan Horse & Who Cares. They are the Creative Associates on the National Theatre’s Speak Up programme, which sees locally theatres, schools and young people co-creating work across the next 3 years. LUNG runs Young Carers Creative Makers, for which they partner with local theatres and local young carers services to provide fun, creative workshops for young carers during school holidays. LUNG runs The Who Cares Campaign with The Lowry and Gaddum (Salford Young Carers Service) which advocates for better rights for young carers through national CPD training and their Who Cares Campaign Working Policy Group.
Why Drama Matters
At LUNG we believe art can change the world. This can be on a big or small scale – a play can allow us to challenge, can shift narratives and perspectives and can call for systematic change, and a drama workshop or lesson in a school can encourage a young person to speak up and find their voice. Drama is an instinct. As far back as there were humans there was storytelling – it is our natural way of unpacking and understanding the world around us.
The dismantling of the arts and drama within schools is having a hugely negative impact on young people’s confidence, aspiration and creative freedom. Drama allows us to have empathy for other experiences, to explore our own feelings and place within the world in a safe and creative way. It has never been more vital!
Why Lung Theatre Are Patrons
We have been proud National Drama members for a long time and we are now even prouder Patrons! The utterly inspiring drama teachers and theatre educators who are part of the National Drama movement give us so much HOPE! The collective fight for the arts to be valued is a fight that can only be won when we do it together.