Once a place of fun, food, friends, family and laughter, now a derelict place for teens to hang out, could this abandoned eatery be the place that brings about real change? Find out when Happy Meals, Happy Kids comes to The Q- Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre on 7-9 March.

“A group of young people gather in this dystopian fast-food restaurant trying to finish a school assignment, their task is to disprove government plans to make the Earth into a mining project. As the assignment progresses and they start chatting, it begins to appear like some assignments are a little bit closer to home than they’d like,” says Jade Breen, playwright and director.

Debuting at Daramalan College in May last year, Happy Meals, Happy Kids was the first play produced by Sunny Productions, Breen’s theatre company. From a school assignment to opening the Q the Locals season, Jade is thrilled to be accepted into the program designed to bring local works by local artists into the public eye.

“Being accepted into Q the Locals, suddenly my work meant something beyond a score on my year 12 ATAR…Having the opportunity to take charge of a production and put my own essence into it as a young person, I think it’s such a unique experience we don’t often see in the Canberra theatre landscape.”

Not having to work to a classroom deadline, Breen was able to expand the story and further flesh out the material taking it from a 30-minute to a 60-minute production. The archetypal characters are instantly recognisable; the teacher’s pet, class clown and popular kids are all there, however, throughout the process, they have been working on creating real representations of young people.

“They’re quite nice, blank canvases. Almost all of my actors have brought this whole new life to them that I never could have expected. During the casting process, it wasn’t a case of ‘Oh my goodness, this is the best actor we could possibly find’, we were looking for real, passionate young people with ideas they wanted to share,” smiles Breen.

Although the play is set in a dystopian future, some themes ring true today, like the wants of the youth. The characters in the play know they need more autonomy and a greater voice in discussions that are affecting them, big ones like the climate crisis and smaller ones that impact day-to-day life.

“It’s all the little issues that affect young people whether that be things like minimum wage, family issues. It’s this idea that as young people we have so little choice in the decisions that are affecting our future. So these young people are standing up and saying ‘No, actually it’s my turn.’”

Youth steer this production and with the backing of The Q, Breen was able to bring young people on board for both creative and stage roles. Students have been cast as characters including a student who moved from Indonesia last year and will make their debut on a Canberra region stage. A recent design graduate is taking on the costumes, Breen says it is incredible to have so much youth on board.

“To have that support from The Q, it’s allowed me to take this little small-scale school production into something much larger; I have some amazing costumes, I’m going to have a full set. I never could have it as big as it’s going to be, also I’ve been able to give these opportunities to emerging artists,” says Breen.

At the heart of the play, there is hope, it may touch on some heavy themes but Breen wants the hope to shine through, particularly the hope that comes in the form of our youth.

“I want them to take away the fact that young people have so many incredible ideas, we need to sit down and listen. Despite how bad everything can get, we need to have hope and we need to have faith in young people to be able to change the world.”

See the youth of the future in Happy Meals, Happy Kids at The Q- Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre on 7-9 March; theq.net.au