Acting, Creativity and Social Justice: Edward Bond’s The Children

Abstract

This article focuses on the first production of Edward Bond's play The Children , which was written for, and first performed by, students at Manor Community College in Cambridge, UK. In this project, a group of students worked with Classworks Theatre Company for 2 weeks in an intensive rehearsal period, where they created and realised roles written for them. Although Bond has previously written plays for Big Brum, a Theatre in Education (TIE) company, The Children is his first play written for young people to perform. This article discusses Bond's interest in Theatre in Education and assesses the significance of his dramatic writing for young people. It also examines the experiences of the young people in the first cast of The Children and the perceptions of the teachers who facilitated the project.