The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is one of the biggest international arts festivals – thousands of people flock to the historic city of Edinburgh, Scotland, in order to see plays, gigs, dances, stand-up comedians and more from all over the world. Over 50,000 performances took place across the three-week festival, in over 294 venues. Shiplake’s very own theatre company, Scruffy Penguin, had the opportunity to be amongst those performers. A group of pupils from a range of year groups travelled to the Scottish capital in order to perform an original play at the Fringe Festival.
The incredible experience of performing at the Fringe has been set up by Head of Drama Mrs Jenny Nunes and Mrs Sian Pearson. Jenny, together with Mrs Sian Pearson, travelled to Scotland together to accompany the boys, along with a minibus filled with costumes, props and pieces for the set. The original script, Lightless, is based on a true story by author Gulwali Passarlay, in a book called The Lightless Sky. Gulwali was an Afghan refugee, who left his home town during a conflict, leaving behind friends and family on a journey to find safety and peace. Now in the UK, Gulwali is a political activitist, seeking to give a voice to the concerns of others silenced by forms of conflict, including children in care and asylum seekers. Lightless is Shiplake’s own portrayal of the story depicted in Gulwali’s book – the script was written by the Drama Department, with input from the actors themselves. The hard-hitting and poignant play explores the difficult journey Gulwali undertook as a child. It is not an easy play to watch; emotions run high throughout, and the Shiplake cast did an incredible job of portraying this.
The audience reaction to the play in Edinburgh was phenomenal; Will Bailey, as Gulwali, gave a touching and sensitive performance, which considered the extent of the emotional turmoil the main character experienced. The Gok Head cited Lightless as ‘an Edinburgh Fringe must see’, with audience members calling it a ‘stunning production’, ‘very moving’, and ‘beautifully and very cleverly staged throughout’. Audiences also commented on the performances, calling them ‘thought provoking, excellent performances all round’, and ‘an excellent script, which did real justice to an excellent book.’ Comedian and TV presenter Russell Howard even attended the show, and was touched by the emotion shown onstage. The response was outstanding and deservedly so; the boys performed admirably, during a trying week of living like an actor, and performing an emotionally draining play several times during the week. There are now possibilities of taking the play on tour around other schools and colleges; from a distressing story comes positivity, and that central message permeates Lightless.