Fringe show CODE takes aim at gangland violence via rap and parkour

Created by Justice in Motion, an Oxford-based physical theatre company set up to make engaging shows about social justice, CODE sits on a bedrock of research. As artistic director Anja Meinhardt-Bruckmann explains, she and her team spent months speaking to the many and varied people caught up in this underworld web. A method of distributing drugs from large cities to rural towns, County Lines sees gangs recruiting and grooming young people, then using mobile phones as a means of contacting and controlling them. 

“It’s very important for us that we don't just talk about an issue without really understanding it,” says Meinhardt-Bruckmann. “So we speak to perpetrators and victims, to parents that might be affected, to the police and academics, so we can have a 360 degree view.” An increasing problem across the UK, tragically and inextricably linked to knife crime, official figures state that approximately 15,000 young people are caught up in County Lines. However, the Children’s Society believes the real figure could be closer to 45,000.

“It's a huge number,” says Meinhardt-Bruckmann, “and everywhere we go, whether that's in deprived areas or more affluent areas, it affects anyone and everyone, any gender, any ethnicity.” Although Meinhardt-Bruckmann understands that “solutions are often hard to come by”, she’s hopeful that watching CODE will raise awareness of the issue, and bring about important conversations between parents and children, and within the wider community. An adrenaline-fuelled performance set in an urban playground, the show blends physical theatre, parkour and trials bike stunts with live rap and music.

So while the message is clear – that there is nothing glamorous or life-enhancing about getting embroiled in the County Lines world – the show’s delivery is athletic, dynamic and highly accessible. Due to the many case studies it draws upon, it’s also rooted in reality. “We had to find a way to make the subject digestible,” says rapper Marcus Smith, who plays the narrator.

“And we don’t want to point fingers or speak in a language that people don’t understand. We’re dealing with such a wide degree of society, as Anja said, it’s young people from posh houses and from poor estates. So I feel like you can’t do something like this without the truth, because people can smell inauthenticity.” CODE has been touring, and growing, for the past three years, adding in any new research or information that comes their way in the meantime. 

Audience feedback has also been important, and along with the excitement elicited by the biking stunts and engagement in the storyline, praise has also been forthcoming for Smith’s clear delivery.

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“Rap can be hard to understand,” he says, “so we really focused on the language and the clarity. With the younger kids, you can hear the gasps at the bikes, so that tells us they’re locked in and focused, But it’s also been nice to come off stage and speak to a woman in her 60s who confirms that she heard the story and could follow it, and for us to bring in a different demographic that wouldn’t usually listen to rap music or spoken word.”

When creating the show, it was important to recognise what attracts young people to engage in County Lines in the first place. As with any societal issue, the answer is multi-layered and complex, involving finance, self-worth, familial strife, lack of education and more.

“Apart from the obvious reasons of peer pressure and wanting to be able to buy new things, I think it’s a result of how we live today as a society,” says Smith. “We’re so isolated and there just isn’t as much connection. So the need for young people to find a sense of belonging and feel part of something exists so much more nowadays, and there are just less places to find it. 

“People yearn for connection but there’s a big hole, and at the same time criminals are getting more sophisticated and smart. The very nature of County Lines is that it's really under the radar, and I think that’s our job – to bring it to the surface and make people aware.”

Over the past 13 years, Justice in Motion has created works exploring forced labour in the construction industry, human trafficking, migration and more.

With each show, the company aims to affect change one conversation at a time, and CODE is no different. “I hope this gives parents and families an opportunity to bring it out into the open,” says Meinhardt-Bruckmann. “And that if there are young people in the audience who have no experience of County Lines, that they’re deterred from getting involved. Not deterred from going to the places in their neighbourhood where it could happen, not to be fearful. But to be more aware, and have an understanding of what could happen, so it’s not so appealing to them.”

CODE is at Heriot Bridge at Pleasance Grassmarket, Edinburgh, 5-27 August as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. This feature was produced in association with Justice in Motion.

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