WHAT IS "GENERATION X"?

 

Generation X was originally the name of a book by Charles Hamblett, published in 1964. Its themes of youth crime, violence and drugs are as relevant in 2000 as they were 36 years ago. Bill Hamblett is the son of the author. With Ann Shrosbree he has worked participatorly with older people from Healthy , Wealthy and Wise (a community education organisation in Ely) and teenagers from Glyn Derw High School Ely. Forming the group "ACT YOUR AGE'' to produce a live theatre version of an imaginary TV game show where fears and concerns of these two generations are played out. Incidents on the estate and the underlying tensions that exist are explored for audiences of younger children. This target audience was defined during the consultation with the pensioner groups as one which should be aware of the the pitfalls of being bullied into participating into a sub culture of violence and crime.

There was feeling expressed that this generation of teenagers was indeed a' Generation X' and not worth including but the work of this group demonstrates that the talent and participatory spirit of both pensioners and young people is worthy of support.

The phrase Generation X is now in common usage as an epithet for a lost generation and was also adopted in the eighties by a rock band.

Generation X was recently spotted in a Tanzanian bar as part of a global marketing plan to sell Pepsi cola.

In our project Generation X is recovering some of its original bite in a theatre piece using the format of pulp television.