“Jumping the Barriers” tells the story of a chance meeting on a train between a wealthy young graduate and a homeless northerner, and how this dramatic mirror casts light on the inequality of our society. James seemingly has it all – a good job, a nice flat in London, and a girlfriend who loves him. Everything is sorted. And that’s the problem. Nothing exciting ever happens to him.
Enter Nathan, a streetwise scouser who is homeless and has just bunked on the train. Their short train journey shows us how first impressions can be deceiving, how we often take a lot for granted and that we always have a choice.
Jumping The Barriers
Created by Adam J S Smith the story is based on a real train journey Adam took from Bristol to London. After a conversation with a genuine homeless man on the journey, Adam thought this would be a a great idea for a play. He immediately approached fellow acting student Chris Daley about writing and producing this together. Once they graduated, they wrote the play together and along with some other former classmates took produced and put on their first performance of the show in Crosby Liverpool.
Done as a free preview show, the cast invited many members of the community including journalists, theater producers, actors, writers, and representatives from homeless charities.
The show was very well received and got particular kudos for the portrayal of Nathan and how the homeless were represented in this drama.
The group then took the show to the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was the first time we'd ever been and it was an incredible two weeks. The group self financed this tour showing our dedication to bringing this story to the stage.
Critical acclaim for the 2016 show:
"This is an extremely relatable and relevant piece of theatre. It balances hope and despair and will have you chuckling as it does so"
"Jumping the Barriers is funny, moving and thoughtful"
We'll be honest,we thought we'd gotten everything out of Jumping the Barriers and that would be the end of that story. However unfortunately with the continuing damage felt by austerity and with a country more divided than ever, we felt 2019 was the right time to bring Jumping the Barriers back to audiences across the country, it being now more relevant than ever.
With a brand new cast (mostly), the show had a very successful run at the 2019 Liverpool Fringe Festival, with Lawrence Rowley and Chris Daley both being nominated at the Liverpool Fringe Awards for their performances. We followed it up with another run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, back where the show first debuted. We were delighted to see audiences connected more than ever with this socially relevant story, laughing and crying in equal measure.
Critical Acclaim for the 2019 Show;
"A very enjoyable journey throughout – the four cast members pulled out all the stops and held the audience attention throughout"
"The script cleverly gave the audience a strong sense of what it’s like to be human and connected"
We're currently working on a full 2 act version of JTB. As long as audience's keep loving it, we'll keep bringing it back!