Please Do Not Touch Delivers An Intense Experience

‘Please Do Not Touch’ was performed last night at Brighton’s Dome Studio Theatre, and the audience was with the performer at every step of his journey.

The story tells of a young TikTok star who explores grand houses, questioning the source of some of the artefacts he finds there. When he discovers a poorly labelled and randomly included Somali wooden comb in a collection, he decides the item’s ownership is incorrect. We then find the character in a young offender’s institution and watch him make sense of the system.

Throughout this one-person play, Selorm Adonu (Mason) captivated the entire audience with his intensity and poise, and his performance was the absolute highlight of the piece. As the play progressed, we met numerous other characters, watched him move through emotional states, and saw him embody the persona he was portraying. His performance was deeply personal, and every movement felt well-placed and carefully selected. His portrayal of his mother was superb, his face changing to capture the new person entering the stage, and his delivery was completely believable. His physicality elegantly conveyed the passage of time in the prison and, along with his words, how the character was growing and changing. This play required a great deal from the actor, as all the weight was on him, but we felt that Adonu was magnificent and certainly a performer to watch for the future.

The set and lighting were both extremely well designed, providing intimate spaces for Adonu to perform within and also adapting to allow us to follow him on his journey. There was also an ever-changing soundscape that followed the narrative, made up of simple electronic sounds, but so well selected for the interpretation of the scenes. We were immersed in a confined space with the character. It felt close and claustrophobic. It felt like we were sharing his prison experience.

Please Do Not Touch evokes some powerful feelings and never shies away from pointing out the issues of colonial legacy. The play brings you right up close to a likeable character you are rooting for throughout, particularly when he exposes his own views and beliefs to the criminal justice system, which appear to be on a different page. The story arc was fluent and engaging, and we were left with a strong sense of the message the writer (Casey Bailey) wanted us to hear.

This highly imaginative play was a China Plate and Belgrade Theatre Co-Production in association with Birmingham Hippodrome.

The next performance is at the Leeds Playhouse on 12/13th March 2026.

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