Madelaine's Story
"Like putting pennies in a jar"
When they first walked through the doors of Immediate Theatre, they weren’t looking for a breakthrough. They were looking for somewhere to land.
They had come across Hackney Young Collective almost by accident, forwarded a flyer while they were living abroad and already feeling untethered. “It was a rough time,” they later admitted. “I didn’t really know what I needed, just that something had to change.” Emailing from Berlin, they asked if they could join late. That simple yes mattered more than they realised.
I was treated like a young person who needed a bit more support, and that was exactly right.
Madelaine
At 25, they were navigating a period where life felt relentless. Outside the rehearsal room, expectations were clear: be resilient, cope, get on with it. Inside Immediate Theatre, something different happened. “I wasn’t treated like a problem,” they said. “I was treated like a young person who needed a bit more support, and that was exactly right.”
Weekly sessions became an anchor. Turning up wasn’t always easy, but the consistency helped. “Just having somewhere to go, every week, knowing I’d be held there, sometimes that was the thing that got me through.” One day, after losing a job, they arrived shaken and overwhelmed. They sat quietly, took a moment, then joined the room. “If I hadn’t had that space that day,” they reflected, “I genuinely don’t know how I would have coped.”
Even when everything else felt like it was slipping, I could come here and think: I know this. I’m good at this.
Madelaine
The work itself offered stability. In a life that felt uncertain, theatre was something they knew they could do. “I needed to feel capable at something,” they said. “Even when everything else felt like it was slipping, I could come here and think: I know this. I’m good at this.”
Slowly, confidence rebuilt, not loud or performative, but internal. “It’s like putting pennies in a jar,” they explained. “Every time you show up when it’s hard, that’s evidence.”
Immediate Theatre became a marker of survival and growth. “It’s bittersweet,” they said. “But it’s also the place that helped me get through and come out the other side.”