Oakham & Rutland News: What Happens Before We Live? The Summer Before I Was Born Takes Local Youth Theatre to New Heights

11 November 2026

What Happens Before We Live? The Summer Before I Was Born Takes Local Youth Theatre to New Heights

An ambitious new abstract comedy is set to take over the Stamford Corn Exchange stage this autumn

. Titled The Summer Before I Was Born, the original production is written and produced by local playwright Alan Wood and performed by the talented young actors of Scripted Youth Theatre

Rather than looking at what happens at the end of life, the play turns one of humanity's oldest philosophical questions entirely on its head by exploring what happens before we enter the world

. Set entirely within an imaginative "pre-life" realm, the story unfolds inside a surreal bureaucracy complete with waiting rooms, strict rules, administrators, archives, and even a questionable "life simulator"

. At the heart of this whimsical world are Elvis and Wednesday, two pre-lives whose unexpected connection threatens to disrupt a system meticulously designed to ensure everyone is born at precisely the right moment

Wood, who has worked with young people in theatre for over 20 years and previously brought youth performances to the Nottingham Playhouse and the National Theatre Connections, wanted to offer his cast something beyond the typical social-issue themes often explored in youth theatre

. By bringing together around 20 young performers aged 10 to 17—including local drama students, former students, and home-educated youths—the production aims to give them the creative freedom to explore imaginative, abstract, and comedic storytelling

.
The Summer Before I Was Born promises audiences a charming and thought-provoking journey into romance, fate, free will, and the possibilities of a life before life