Boy racers take to the stage
Last updated 11:40, Thursday, 26 June 2008
A NEW play, co-written by its young cast, is being debuted in Carlisle tonight.
Three Car Pile-Up is the work of the 30 teenagers from the Quondam Young People’s Theatre Company, a new youth group set up by members of Quondam Theatre Company.
The professional group held drama workshops with 30 students, aged from 14 to 17 years old, and devised and wrote the play together with them. It is being staged at the Stanwix Arts Theatre in Carlisle tonight and tomorrow night.
The play deals with the hypocrisy in the motor industry, where road safety is preached but fast cars are idolised and promoted in advertising.
Quondam are based in Cumbria but tour throughout the country and have held youth drama workshops in Penrith before. But the sessions in Carlisle have been the first in the city and director Andy Booth said: “The response has been fantastic.”
He said the idea behind the youth group was to add to what youngsters learnt through drama at school.
“I think school drama teachers do a fantastic job, but they are restricted by the curriculum,” Andy said. “We want to give young people an opportunity to express themselves without the constraints of the curriculum.”
They are already planning to stage another production next year, Martha Sheppard’s play Mudfest, about a first visit to a rock festival.
Both performances of Three Car Pile-Up start at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £3/£2.
