Norma Cohen watches pupils learn how the magic of theatre is created. Stand by, lights. Stand by, sound. Kill the lights. Action!” A darkened hall lights up on a curragh moored against a shaking cloth sea. A brolly opens and closes quickly, a plastic bag is energetically scrunched. A burst of drumming and stamping, and wind whistling down a long tube conjure a storm.
Inspired by Lin Coghlan’s play, At the Edge of the Sky, students from Oaklands Community School are taking part in a technical theatre workshop with the Half Moon Young People’s Theatre. It is part of Getting Ahead, an education, training and employment initiative (supported by Lehman Brothers) for 10 to 14s in Tower Hamlets secondary schools in east London.
Actor Andrew Sinclair demonstrates the differing functions of stage lights before splitting a Year 10 class into groups. The object is to use available equipment to create sound and lighting plans for an end of play re-run. Students disperse with alacrity, lured by the prospect of hands-on activity.
“That doesn’t look like sunrise,” shouts a voice as a boy crouches over a floor spot, fiddling with colour gels. Two others are experimenting with the light controls board, amazed at the effects they can create - even lightning. The sound group is conjuring intermittent bird song with flutes, composing tunes on the synthesiser. The brolly twirls. Heads pop up from the boat, lit by technicolour hues as the stamping, scrunching and whistling start up again.
“It’s a bit like a book, using sound and light to create similes and metaphors,” says class member Lee Cook.
“You’re giving inside information,” says Sinclair, “handing over creative responsibility.” The day is boosted by free technical manuals, actor-teacher follow-up workshops, an extensive resource pack and a backstage visit for 30 students to the Royal National Theatre.
Undoubtedly, the play itself had commanded the class’s attention. Set on the bleak, fictional island of An Grian Mor off the west coast of Ireland, the ancient site for traditional pilgrimages, it’s a haunting piece. Burdened by a father plagued by a sense of failure, Katherine is stuck at home. When her closest friend returns after four years, she’s forced to reassess her priorities and struggles to break free.
Coghlan’s compassion extends to the father eroded by poverty and drink and to Foxy, staggering under the weight of a huge cross to enact Jesus in the Stations of the Cross, the pageant within the play acting as a metaphor for Katherine’s own journey. Religion is treated irreverently. St Patrick’s Rock has “the power to take away loneliness”, Foxy holds up St Ignatius’s holy stomach, “preserved in vinegar in this very jam jar”.
An all-Bengali audience of boys from Stepney Green School was riveted by the theme of family loyalties and the disparities between love, friendship and sex. Sketchy staging couldn’t shake their attention from a hugely spirited script.
Touring schools until the end of February. Public performances: Albany Theatre, Deptford (081 691 3277) until tomorrow; Newham Drama Centre (071 473 0395) February 14, 15. Half Moon Young People’s Theatre: 0171 265 8138.
Illuminating the subject: pupils of the Blessed John Roche School take part in a workshop run by Half Moon Young People’s Theatre White Herring Boats, by Mary McCrossan, 1899
