Press Release - P5 Peace Child for Future Generations

Published by David Woollcombe in Musical Shows in 2025 · Wednesday 09 Apr 2025 · 12:45
Tags: press, release, 5, x, Summer, 2025, Peace, Child, Shows

PRESS RELEASE

P5 Peace Child for Future Generations

- World Premiere -

19:30 - Wednesday 9th July - Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod

Hard on the heels of Glyndebourne Opera’s UPRISING, and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s KYOTO – both of which seek to dramatize the history and consequences of Climate Change – the Llangollen International Eisteddfod will premiere a new version of the Peace Child musical which, for 44 years, has challenged young people to craft plausible stories of how their generation will actually solve the climate crisis and create a safe, sustainable world for Future Generations.

In a Uniting Nations Concert to mark the 80^th Anniversary of the UN, and the 10^th Anniversary of the Well-being Act which spawned the Wales’ Commission for Future Generations, this Eisteddfod will convene a youth cast drawn from each of the UN’s 5 x permanent(P5) Veto-wielding nations: China, France, Russia, the UK and USA. Together, they will craft a new story that explores the sources of war and ecological destruction. This P5 Peace Child for Future Generations then tells a story of how the young people of today use their working lives to create a safe, sane and sustainable, world that will guarantee the survival of their own – and future – generations. At a time when the arc of the moral universe is bending back towards imperialism rather than forward towards justice and some world leaders have lost touch with economic reality, this show will blast light through the insanities today’s youth are inheriting from their ancestors – and demonstrate the power of peaceful collaboration to unite peoples and nations.

“It’s a high risk venture,” says David Woollcombe, President of Peace Child International and co-author of the original Peace Child: “It could all go horribly wrong! But we’ve done this several times before and I am always astonished by how quickly creative young people agree on viable solutions to the existential problems that face us which, even after decades of negotiation, seem to have escaped their elders.

“Come see the results on July 9^th.”

Contact: david@peacechild.org / 07798 665 202 for further information, comment and media interviews with the P5 Cast Members

5 x Summer 2025 Peace Child Shows

17-18 May: Perth, Scotland – Peace Child + 30: reuniting the Cast of the 1995 Perth Youth Theatre show for a Concert and discussion. On Saturday 17^th May, the cast will raise the time capsule they buried at the time of their 1995 performance – and attend a Reception hosted by the City of Perth. On Sunday 18^th May, they will attend a Reunion Sing-along Concert of Peace Child songs. They will also have a discussion of how a Peace Child in 2025 might help shape this generation’s future. This will be introduced by a performance of the Time Travel Chat Show by Peace Child author, David Woollcombe, and members of the Perth Youth Theatre. For more information & Reunion Schedule, CLICK HERE;

28^th May: Hay Festival Workshop – Peace Child Time Travel Chat Show: this performance will feature award-winning male soloist, Shea Ferron, playing both guests and the vocalist to introduce a discussion of how this generation, and their communities, can create a “Future We Want” for all people. Designed to mark the UN’s 80^th Anniversary and the 10^th Anniversary of the Wales Future Generations Commission, the show gets audiences to co-create a collective time machine to bring themselves back from two very different futures – one in which they follow UN guidance and create a safe, sustainable future; the other in which they don’t. If, as we hope, the audience agrees the first option is the Future they want, the workshop discusses the question: what does this generation have to do to create it? For more information & to book tickets, CLICK HERE;

9^th July: Llangollen International Eisteddfod – P5 Peace Child Premiere: Chinese, French, Russian, UK & US youth will meet to co-create a new Peace Child story that tells how their generation bury their differences and work together to solve the existential crises which threaten the very survival of the human family. This Peace Child returns the Eisteddfod to its peace-building roots as the first half of a Uniting Nations Concert to mark the United Nations’ 80th anniversary. The second half features the UK Premiere of Karl Jenkins’ ONE WORLD Oratorio, delivering an unforgettable celebration of peace, unity and global harmony. For more information & to book tickets, CLICK HERE;

23^rd August: Ljubljana Festival – in Partnership with the Slovenian Youth Symphony and the Government of Slovenia, this event will bring together young musicians, actors and choristers to co-create their own version of the P5 Peace Child story. The Slovenians will host a Peace Child Week of rehearsals, workshops and discussions at the main government conference centre at Brdo Castle. Here the show will be co-created, for the Ljubljana Festival performance at the Križanke Summer Theatre. For information, CLICK HERE;

24^th Oct: UN Day Concert, General Assembly, New York – The UN’s senior leadership and Dept. of Global Communication have chosen this P5 Peace Child Platform Performance to be the 2025 UN Day Concert, celebrating the UN’s 80^th Anniversary. Featuring celebrity guests and an International Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the concert will shine a spotlight on the indispensable work the UN has done for our world in the last 80 years, and light a path for its member states to follow in its next 80. (For more information, and an example UN Day Concert on Climate Action CLICK HERE)

– P5 Peace Child for Future Generations –

BACKGROUNDER

Royal Albert Hall Oct 81 - Kennedy Center Dec 82 - Moscow Aug 85 - UN General Assembly Space Bridge Sept 89 - UN Office in Geneva Sept 2013

WHAT IS PEACE CHILD?

Peace Child is a musical with a mission to empower young people to explore global problems and think up stories about how their generation will solve them. The musical frames their stories in a simple format which starts in a safe, sustainable world, 50 years hence: back-casting to the present, each cast must craft a story of what they do in their working lives to solve the problems we face today. In the 1980s – that problem was the Cold War Nuclear Stand-off. The Peace Child story that premiered in London’s Royal Albert Hall told the story of how Soviet and American children became friends and persuaded their Presidents to become friends – rendering nuclear weapons irrelevant. That was the story we took to the USA and the USSR – bringing both nations together in a youth-cultural exchange which resulted in a TV Satellite show from the UN General Assembly on Peace Day 1989. History imitated Peace Child when, a few months later, the Berlin Wall fell, the Iron Curtain parted, and the Cold War ended.

THE MUSIC

The Peace Child musical is driven by inspirational songs that uplift and empower young people and audiences of all ages and nationalities. The composer & lyricist, David Gordon, is the elder brother of British pop legend, Cat Stevens. Together they recorded his pop oratorio, Alpha Omega, with singers like David Essex and other celebrities. Richard Arnell orchestrated it for a platform performance narrated by Sir Edward Woodward at Coventry Cathedral. It was the climax of a Memorial Week that brought together leaders of cities bombed in World War II. Inspired by the Peace Movement, David then decided to dedicate his music to the cause of Peace and co-created with David Woollcombe and Bernard Benson, the musical, Peace Child. David composed several new songs for the Peace Child story, inspired by working with children: in an interview, he said: “I can never see anybody without seeing a child in them. We all need to reach into ourselves and find that child within us – and also find that spark, that power, that was there in Martin Luther King, in Jesus, Mohammed, the Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi - all the great teachers and peace-makers. That same power is in every child. The whole point of Peace Child for me is to help each child find that power in themselves.” In the USSR, we were lucky that Peace Child was championed by the Soviet rock legend, Stas Namin, whose Flowers rock group were the Beatles of the Soviet Union. His songs are equally powerful and magisterial. Several young cast members have written their own songs for the show, some of which are included on the Peace Child website.

I Who Am I - Mr President - World - I have a Vision - Listen to Me

THE MISSION: EMPOWERING YOUNG PEOPLE

As a small charity, Peace Child never had much money – so Director / Author, David Woollcombe, had to drive some cast-members to and from rehearsals. On one such journey, kids of the cast were talking about the show in the back seat and David realised that the jokes they were telling each other were funnier than the lines he had written for them in the show. Some of the ideas were more interesting too, so he wrote a few of them into the script. The cast were delighted to be speaking their own lines and telling their own jokes to their parents and teachers. So now, David’s first instruction to every Peace Child cast is: “Please! Tear up my script and start again!” In that way, every Peace Child show is different: each presents the authentic voice of the young people performing it. This is the source of our mission: empowering young people. Young people feel genuinely empowered to be standing on a stage in a dramatic musical setting, speaking their own truth to family, friends and adults.

That empowerment extends to every project Peace Child has ever done: young people write and edit, design and illustrate every book we’ve ever done. They manage each of our World Youth Congresses and they came up with the idea of Youth-led Development which guides our international development programmes. UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, wrote in his introduction to David's book, Youth-led Development: “Young people ask us: ‘See us as a resource, not a problem!’ Of course they are! The most precious resource our planet possesses. Providing for youth is not just a moral obligation, it is a compelling economic necessity.” David himself adds: “I believe that our world would benefit immensely from a more muscular inclusion of young people in our decision-making process and in the execution of those decisions. Youth-led development is born in the faith that young people can contribute constructively to the good of society in the years before their 18^th birthdays. I have spent my adult life operationalizing that faith - devolving insane amounts of responsibility on to young shoulders. In 44 years, I can count on the fingers of one hand, the number of times they have they let me down!”

THE FUTURE – 5 x Peace Child Musical Events in 2025!

Our first Peace Child in 1981 imagined the world in 2025 as a world at peace, with poverty and nuclear weapons a distant memory, the environment on the mend and equality and human rights spreading across the world in an unstoppable wave. Instead we find wars in Gaza and Ukraine, human rights in tatters and poverty, climate and inequality worsening. Rather than addressing these crises, our governments spend our treasure preparing for war, including nuclear war. Is it any wonder that so many children and young people are anxious? We must surely learn how to be “Good Ancestors” and seek to achieve that Baden Powell goal of “leaving the world a better place than we found it.” That is the focus of the New Peace Child shows of 2025:

17-18 May: Perth, Scotland – Peace Child + 30: reuniting the Cast of the 1995 Perth Youth Theatre show for a Concert and discussion;

28^th May: Hay Festival – Peace Child Time Travel Chat Show: premiering the 2-hander conversation-starter for schools & communities;

9^th July: Llangollen International Eisteddfod – P5 Peace Child Premiere: Chinese, French, Russian, UK & US youth bury their hatchets;

23^rd August: Ljubljana Festival – Slovenian Youth Orchestra + Intl. Chorus and Narrators launch “Sit Down” campaign with Peace Child;

24^th Oct: UN General Assembly, New York – The UN’s 80^th Anniversary Concert UN Day Concert: a classic global Peace Child Concert;

Becoming “Good Ancestors” is also the goal of the UN’s 2024 Declaration on Future Generations. The New Peace Child shows aim to promote and engage youth and communities in promoting the Declaration, which was agreed unanimously by the UN’s 193 Member Governments. It tells us to recognise: “children and youth as agents of change,” and instructs us all: "... to ensure that present generations act with responsibility towards safeguarding the needs and interests of future generations.” Such words on paper, even when supported by compelling speeches by UN Officials, can never pack the emotional punch that young people can deliver in music and drama.

So, as the Founders and drivers of Peace Child reach the end of their working lives, we seek to hand over the baton to those who share our thirst for peace, sustainable development, global collaboration, and the values we urge all Peace Children to embody: namely Selflessness and Integrity. We hope that Peace Child can continue to inspire young people to rise to the challenge of becoming “Good Ancestors” and encourage the rest of us – especially our governments - to follow their lead.

David R Woollcombe, Founder and President,

Peace Child International – March 2025