Peterborough's diverse student population has delved deep into the question of what it means to be British in a brand new series of original plays.

East Anglia-based theatre company Eastern angles teamed up with 3 multi-ethnic secondary schools to deliver an initiative to help young people explore the concept of Britishness.

The unique opportunity was designed to enable young people to address issues of identity and belonging highlighted by the wider, national political climate in the UK, through contemporary theatre.

To facilitate the workshops on the topic the schools paired up with 3 award-winning playwrights - Simon Longman, Aisha Zia and bafta nominee Dawn King.

In workshops they inspired pupils to share their experiences of life in Peterborough.

The writers then wrote short plays based on the discussion and invited the year 10 students to direct and perform them. The result was 3 unique half-hour performances at Peterborough’s pop-up theatre space the Undercroft last Thursday, July 18th.

The programme for the schools performances!

The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) census revealed Peterborough has a high proportion of Pakistani and EU nationals, however the area has according to residents been blighted by a lack of cohesion and the partial segregation of minority communities. Across the UK, Peterborough has the highest rate of British Citizenship tests taken.

Projects like this one - which aim to bridge cultural divides - are unfortunately a rarity nowadays since much needed schools arts funding is often the first to be slashed when austerity-driven cuts are made.

Reports from across the UK say schools are reducing timetables, specialist staff and resources for arts subjects due to overall school funding cuts. 40% of UK secondary schools responded to a BBC survey, 90% stating they were forced to make these cuts.

The subjects impacted include art, drama, music, design and technology. A startling statistic reported in January 2019 by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Music Education found over half of state schools no longer teach music.

Scott Hurran, founder of this project and artistic associate at Eastern Angles, said they were seeing a huge reduction in resources and respect for the arts in schools, and of ways to engage students with the arts.

They acted their thoughts aloud in the play exploring teenage identity

He said the initiative enabled students to have potentially difficult and very personal discussions, brought up in the wider cultural conversation by Brexit.

"This project has given the students the freedom to have these conversations," he explained. "A lot of the students have a mixed heritage, they identify as being from Peterborough but might be the first generation born here."

Dawn King's play is set in a dystopian future post Brexit, where almost the entire population of the UK has left. The characters are asked to prove their Britishness in order to stay.

Aisha Zia worked with a school whose music and drama classes were combined. Scott Hurran brought a musical director in to score parts of the play with the students. Aisha is from Peterborough, and wrote about honour killings, racism and those who feel disregarded and marginalised in, and by, their community.

Simon Longman was the playwright working with City of Peterborough Academy students, whose drama teacher left halfway through the project. The school hasn’t been able to replace the teacher, so the PE teacher has been running the sessions.

Peterborough students performing the plays written for them

Simon said it was important to him to be able to write for a group while still giving them complete ownership over it, and introduce them to contemporary theatre.

“I made it clear I wasn't a teacher," he explained, "and that it was a safe space to share ideas and be vulnerable. Maybe they want to cut things out. It's theirs to take initiative with. I think there's something unique you can find in reading plays, being brave and using your head as well as your body.”

They also discussed their views on the current political climate. “The students were great - they were up for experimenting and being playful with ideas”.

One of the students who worked with Simon explained how empowering the project was: “It was different because we could relate to [the play]. We put our ideas on the table, we crafted it, Scott [director of the project] took a back seat and helped us focus”.

The play took on serious topics but didn't stop the comedy of school life from coming out

The product was a funny and candid play called ‘Patient Light’ where the heady weight of daily anxiety was the primary focus,

“The play is about all the things you think in your head but never say out loud” Simon explained. “It's about all the things that are mundane but might have a big impact on people.

“I think anxiety in young people is something we need to talk about a lot more. The current education system makes young people feel like they are constantly being examined and tested.”

The play took the form of a stream of consciousness, in which the students played all of the characters rather than just one each. They spoke interchangeably about the anxieties of their lives from waking up, through the school day to going to sleep.

“I think we could be friends if you got to know me better” one character thinks as she is hit by another, “but to say that out loud time would have to stop”.

“It was like he was living inside my brain,” said one student about Simon’s writing. “He really showed how we felt. He showed we are layered as human beings and how our minds work- how fast it flicks through different thoughts and worries”.

A student explained working on another play at school about 80’s dancers, and how the students struggled to relate to them. “Having a play written about our lives made it easier to perform.”

Some of the students were a little nervous but their play shone in this professional theatre!

The play also explored the question behind living in a rural neighbourhood where you don’t identify with anyone around you, and whether the youth should cut their losses and head to a big city, forgetting where they came from.

A student explained: “It's normal for people to dislike our area. I want to move. There’s a section in the play that suggests if people gave it a bit of love, if people cared for the area more and treated it better, it would improve”.

Simon explained: “For young people the past can feel kind of restrictive, but it's not as important as a person’s future. All the simple hopes and dreams of finishing school, going to uni, that horizon should feel it's easy to get to rather than far away.”

One student remarked: “In my primary school I was the only black person there, I wasn’t used to seeing different cultures. I want to go to a big city where there’s more life, where it's more vibrant and there’s more diversity.”

The play explored feeling out of place in a town you call home

"I have a huge amount of faith in that generation"

Simon said he was "really inspired" by the teens. "I knew I would be- I have a huge amount of faith in that generation.

“Finding new theatre audiences is really important. Theatre takes its core audience for granted and often forgets to engage a new audience that is coming through. Theatre can become boring, but we’ll be playing to empty theatres if we let that be the case.”

“We learnt a lot,” said one student participant. “Scott’s given us skills and techniques we’re going to use in other projects.”

Another said: “Its given me loads of skills I can use for different subjects- thinking creatively, collaborating, dedicating myself and thinking outside the box.”

For the first time, this was a project and a piece of art  in which students were able to proudly state: “This is who we are.”

To find out more about Eastern Angles projects check out their website or head to the Undercroft Weekender - a new arts festival happening in the heart of Peterborough this weekend- 26th-28th July.