JOLT! – Riot and Resilience

A series of three short plays by Umar Butt.

‘What do you do when the world shakes, and the ground beneath your feet gives way?’

From Umar Butt, award-winning theatre maker and Tees Valley Artist of the Year, comes Jolt! a powerful, semi-autobiographical exploration of systemic unrest, borders, and the enduring strength of the human spirit.

Spanning nearly eighty years, this gripping trilogy connects massive historical turning points to the quiet, intense moments of personal survival. Three short plays, set a generation apart, ask what it means to belong when the world around you is tearing itself at the seams.

1947: As the lines of Partition are drawn, a mixed-race couple watches their world fracture overnight during the independence of India and Pakistan.

The 1980s:  A mother risks everything, embarking on a perilous and illegal border crossing to bring her child to see their father.

The Present: The lens shifts sharply to home, exploring the recent Middlesbrough riots through the eyes of four ordinary people, thrust into the extraordinary heart of the chaos.

Visceral, timely, and deeply moving, Jolt! This key work of modern British theatre explores division and highlights the resilience that unites us.