This Easter, the egg theatre in Bath plays host to one of the Out Of Your Mind festival, presenting new plays from local people aged from 6-82.
More than 100 young people, aged from 6-18, and a further 100 adults have been working together in intergenerational casts and companies – in many cases, several generations of the same family have been involved, with parents and grandparents performing works written by children and teenagers, and vice versa.
Joe Spurgeon, who coordinates the Theatre’s adult education programme, Engage, explained, “It’s a monster project and a rare and rather lovely coming together of adults and children on the same stage. In total, we’ll have 35 plays getting an airing, some of which have been developed over the last two years as part of TRB’s community writers’ programme. Overseen by our wonderful team of seven professional directors, each play has been shaped in collaboration with the writers and actors throughout and there are some truly extraordinary moments.
“To see intergenerational work – often four shows a night – throughout the festival, is an unusual and beautiful thing. Brace yourself for the unexpected!”
TRB Theatre School Executive Director, Alex Duarte-Davies, added, “Our youngest writer, Juno Short, who is only 6, has written a piece called What Happens in the Ice Cream Palace, which is being performed by our Junior members. We have several families involved. One family has two young people who have written plays being performed by adults and young people and all four siblings are performing in the festival, with their father performing alongside twelve teenagers in a piece called Half Dead, by Julia Irvine.
Hungry is our largest intergenerational piece with eleven teenagers aged 14-18 performing alongside ten adults. They have been rehearsing weekly and have bonded as a company, and it has been truly inspiring to see every generation learning from each other.”
The Out Of Your Mind festival has performances at the egg theatre from Thursday 29 March – Sunday 8 April. Each evening will feature a different selection of new plays. Tickets are on sale now, from the egg reception on 01225 823409 and online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk