Embracing Strangers |
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Commissioned by Gosforth High School for a European education project, Comenius Action 1 |
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Synopsis: This play explores the differences and common ground between three nations and three generations. The first half focuses on WWII with scenes about the Norwegian resistance, the effects of the war on women in Britain, and its aftermath for civilians in Germany. The contemporary second half begins with a love story complicated by the Berlin Wall and its destruction. Three stylised monologues graphically portray what it's like to be unemployed in Europe today. And in the final scene, a farce set in a British NHS hospital, the modern family comes under the microscope. Comedy and drama alternate and combine, the theme of walls gives coherence and shape: walls that divide us, shelter us, betray us, immortalise us.... The script was translated into Norwegian and German and performed by secondary students in the UK, Norway and Germany for their own communities. In the spring of 1999 students and teachers from the three countries came together for a tri-lingual production in Angermünde, Germany. |
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Production History |
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Year & Company
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Directors |
| 1998 - Gosforth High School, Newcastle, England | Mandy Leigh, Corinne Raybould |
| 1999 - Gosforth High School, Newcastle, England; Ringerike VG Skole, Honeføss, Norway; Einstein Gymnasium, Angermünde, Germany | Mandy and Corinne + Detlef Werner, Samuel Noko |