Primary Voices Showcase– Arcola Theatre
Surreal, funny, entertaining, imaginative – Primary Voices gives its audience an exclusive look into the minds of young Londoners, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what you find.
Communicating in hushed, excited giggles, two men enter the stage dressed as hotel staff. Their manager yells in a stern voice: “Both of you go to your rooms!”
They bow their heads and, as if told off by a parent, they glumly follow the command taking the guest’s suitcases away.
Meanwhile, the manager’s daughter walks around in a bunny suit declaring that it’s about time the pair are fired… out of a canon?!?
I sit laughing, pleasantly surprised not only at cleverly absurd dialogue but at the fact that this short play was actually written by two 10-year-olds.
In fact all of the plays featured in the showcase are written by pupils in their last year of primary school.
Since the beginning of the school year, Quicksilver Theatre – renowned for their theatre work with children and young people – have been working in Hackney classrooms teaching Year Six children the art of writing scripts and plays.
Having received over 100 scripts, the best two from each school were selected to receive a fully professional premiere at the Arcola Theatre.
Six actors, 10 plays, approximately 10 minutes each, one afternoon” they certainly had their work cut out.
However, in offering up such surprisingly mature narratives, these young writers proved they could handle a variety of themes, delivering a pick-and-mix of genres.
Plays such as A dream of China and Shanice and Channel in Da Club! (the girls secretly turn a corner shop into a nightclub where young ravers go crazy on orange soda) had the audience laughing out loud. The Sub and The Bad Boys (performance and shadow projections depict a mournful mother at her son’s funeral after being involved in street crime and violence) provided drama and The Sweet Life of Chinonso and Said” Plato’s Cave” A dream of China” Yesterday a Bully, Today a Friend” The Quest and The Savage World brought us fun fantasy.
Throw in energetic performances by the ensemble cast and a great use of props and shadow puppetry and Primary Voices presents imaginative, relevant pieces of theatre.
Admittedly, you felt as if you’d been given a key into the minds of these pupils, and at times this created a real sense of unease” adults and parents were clearly uncomfortable watching the short play The Sub, in which a strange man forces his way into a school playground, coming into contact with the school pupils.
Watching such a variety of narratives and characters come to life on stage is a much-needed reminder of the sheer creativity of young people (even if it does force you to question whether you’re still just as imaginative).
The showcase asserts that the stories of young people (by young people) are just as important, if under-represented, on stage. Primary Voices can be hailed as not only encouraging playwrights of the future, but more importantly, igniting imaginations and creating theatre-goers for the here and now.
Besides, where else can you travel to an African rainforest, a mythical kingdom ruled by a winged horse and the Olympics in Beijing, all in one afternoon?
Quicksilver Theatre’s Primary Voices ran at the Arcola Theatre, Dalston 22 – 24 January 2009.
Writers:
Jasmeet Kaur, Oliver Hilferty, Princess May Primary School
Niamh Phillips, Ireti Olanira, Tyra Barriteau, Joshua Jackson, Andres Osorio, Brian Kwong, St Scholastica’s Primary School
Queenie Qureshi-Wales, Hawabibi Delair, Gamze Ogurlu, Guldeniz Gumush, Ben Tisdall, Lewis Todd, Ruby Tripney, Shacklewell Primary School
Kadife Toci and Esther Beki, Kimaya Torchia, Jaysharnai Francois and Samiz Mustak, Nightingale Primary School
Chinonso Ude, Said Bakouse, Joshua Wolex and Patryk Wesolowski, Brook Primary School
Mohammed Garasia , Maaz Vali, Gertrude Gibbons, Jordan Gibson-Walden, Cornelius Gibbons, Benthal Primary School
Nasreen Bass, Eden Fashoyin, Brittney Campbell, Fatma Ibrahim and Shazmin Khan, Baden Powell Primary School
Ellen Kirk, Dottie Mcdonald, Ellie-May Ritchie, Sunny Downey, Colvestone Primary School
Cast: Babatunde Aleshe, Tigger Blaize, Tyrone James, Anna Maria Nabirye, Dan Pott, Roses Urquhart
Directors: Carey English (project/showcase) Guy Holland (showcase)
