Anais Lone, who plays Leyla, the lead role in A DoL House, tells us more about this important show, which opens tonight at The Big House.
Where: The Big House
When: 22 Jun – 11 Jul
Ticket link: https://www.ticketsource.com/thebighouse/a-dol-house/e-zkegvp
What can you tell us about the new play?
It’s a play that shines a light on a really important issue affecting hundreds of children across the UK: one where young people can be stripped of their basic human rights and placed into unregulated, dangerous situations with no safeguards around them. Crucially, it’s an issue where most people have no idea it is happening.
This is the story of a young girl named Leyla who goes through that situation. Yes, we follow her journey, but also her humanity. We are drawn away from any idea that this is just a difficult child, and we see her for what she is: a child who has been abandoned by the system, a child with needs.
The world of the play is deliberately claustrophobic – at points, you feel as trapped as she does. But there are moments which will create an escape for the audience. It’s quite a unique show in how it creates a very particular tension between the setting and the emotional journey.
How have you found the process of finding your character?
It has been a difficult journey. The subject matter is so painful. To play Leyla properly, I had to research and come to understand things that no one should ever have to comprehend, let alone experience.
One of the most important things for me was making sure that Leyla is not defined only by her trauma. She is so much more than someone placed in a terrible situation. She is a person with thoughts, feelings, a history, a favourite colour, a favourite food. Those things are what make her who she is, and they exist entirely separately from what has been done to her.
Building her from that foundation was essential. I was determined to humanise her in a way that her journey through the system has denied her.
So much writing about young people in care reaches for trauma porn: it pulls on a heartstring and then stops there. But not every story has a neat resolution, and a single experience is never someone’s defining characteristic.
There is so much more to ask. How did things start? What were the knock-on effects? What options were made available? What was the path that got here, and what might come next? These stories are almost always reduced to black and white, when the reality is almost entirely grey.
What should audiences expect?
It is not going to be the most cheerful evening! I think people should expect to be genuinely shocked. Even those with no personal connection to the care system will be affected by the issues in the play, as on a basic human level, the subject matter is horrifying.
So much of what is happening has flown completely under the radar, and this play is only the beginning.
We aren’t aiming for pity with the play. I hope people will be angry. People are not angry enough about this, and I really hope this play changes that, and that the anger it produces forces people to act.
The care system is always under scrutiny. How has The Big House been continuing that conversation?
What I find particularly significant is that The Big House is critical of parts of the social care system, but chooses to work actively with those bodies rather than simply against them.
It is not about telling overstretched systems that they are doing a terrible job. It is about saying things can be better, and here is how we can build that together.
That approach matters enormously. When you set yourself up in opposition to a system, it becomes defensive and shuts down. When you open a dialogue and present paths towards something better, people can actually move.
The Big House has been crucial in keeping that dialogue open. And it works on both sides: helping institutions understand young people, and helping young people understand that not every professional they encounter is an adversary.
A lot of our members have had deeply negative experiences, but that does not mean every experience has to be that way.
We have had everyone from senior police officers and social workers come in and talk directly with young people, because the work of humanising each other has to run in every direction.
That reciprocal relationship is exactly how real change gets built: young people putting in their knowledge, professionals putting in theirs, and everyone educates each other and works together on something that could genuinely make a difference.
The advocacy arm of The Big House is only expanding, and the work is always focused on giving young people a voice and teaching those in power what is actually happening, from the perspective of those who have lived it.
This has created advocates within the members who have lobbied for change, affected policy, and opened up direct conversations between young people and the people with the power to make decisions that affect them. It’s not simply a case of completing a programme and moving on.
What’s next for the show after this run?
We’re really hoping that the right people see A DoL House, and that those people use it to push for change. That is the most important thing.
In terms of The Big House more generally, we’re taking Blaze FM on tour, which looks at pirate radio and the criminalisation of drill and grime. In the Winter, The Big House is debuting a new play called The Inquest, which is definitely one to go and see if you are interested in the themes of injustice within A DoL House.