Martin Travers’ play the Kids Are Alt Right, is a short play written for students age 13 –18. It tells the tale of four Scottish teenagers and the real impact that social media and online content can have on society. If exploring this with your students in class or performance, the very relevant themes will resonate with them. The play was commissioned by the Scottish Government as an educational resource to allow young people to explore themes such as social media, online social influencers, radicalisation and extremism. Alongside the play there are teaching and learning resources available to help you explore these further in your drama lessons.
The play is written for an ensemble of six to ten actors and Travers provides detailed descriptions of each of the characters at the start of the play, including information on physical fitness for the characters who are also kick-boxers. Travers also includes useful information as to who can multi-role. At first it is a hard read, as it is littered with Scottish slang words, which may be hard to decipher. However, at the end of the play Travers has included a useful glossary which puts this into context.
Travers includes detailed stage directions throughout, which allows you to really visualise what his intentions are: while the play is very naturalistic in its dialogue, there are opportunities to explore stylistic moments, such as Fatma and Britney's kick boxing scenes, in which you could explore some physical theatre, similar to Frantic Assembly's Beautiful Burnout.
The play is well written and will lend itself to exploring key drama techniques such as through-line of action, units and objectives, and accents, while also exploring some very serious themes. There are some really nice moments in the play, such as the final scene where the Pretty Ones sum up what you should be taking away from the play and the importance of internet safety. Overall it's a difficult first read but well worth sticking with it to explore the themes that are so prominent with the youth of today.