8 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| February 2012
Cover story |
Creativity
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
T
he curtains open. The lights come up. On a bare stage two men are
whooping and cheering. It becomes evident they are watching a
football match. They order drinks at an imaginary bar. Ah, they’re in a
pub. The action freezes and we cut to another character sitting alone
in a pool of light, centre stage. He’s looking at Facebook and waiting
for his dad to come home from the pub.
Back in the pub, dad is vaguely trying to get away but his friend plies him with
drinks. Eventually, when the match is over he leaves, comes home drunk and
creates uproar with mum in front of the child, then collapses on the floor. The
action freezes.
The audience is made up of 14 to 15-year-olds from two schools in Hampshire,
and they are here to learn about alcohol and risk-taking behaviour. The show
continues, and the scene is replayed using members of the audience standing in
for the original characters. The young people are excited by the sight of their
friends up there on the stage, under the lights. The actors explore the scene and
try out different strategies, different endings.
They are watching Vita Nova – ‘new life’ in Latin – which began as an idea in
the minds of a group of newly recovering addicts and alcoholics in Bournemouth.
They had undergone ‘treatment’ and were writing a sketch about the experience.
Well, that was the idea at the beginning, but somehow they got hooked up with
Bournemouth Theatre in Education – Sharon Muiruri, co-director, was looking to put
together an educational play about addiction, and who better to approach than
those who had ‘been there’?
The play, Scratchin’ the Surface, told the story of Jay, a nice guy from a good
family who gets involved with nightclub culture, party drugs and ‘the raven’, a
Faustian embodiment of addiction. Sharon’s training and background in applied
theatre, coupled with the breathtaking choreography of Junior Jones – at one point
the raven flies Jay around the performing space, illustrating the exhilaration of drug
intoxication – made for a genuinely thrilling and thought provoking production.
After the fledgling theatre company had undergone necessary vetting
procedures, the play toured secondary schools throughout Dorset. The production
was always accompanied by a ‘share’ session at the end – an opportunity for
students to ask direct questions of the performers. The Q&A was carried out
anonymously, with questions written out on slips of paper. What the students wanted
to know was, ‘Why do people get involved with drugs? How much money did you
spend? Did you go to jail? What did your mum and dad think?’ – to mention a few.
Up on the stage, the Vita Nova actors are sitting on a row of chairs. They are
out of character now, being themselves. Jane is talking about her daughter and
the fact that she hasn’t seen her for the past five years. A young woman in the
audience starts to cry. After the show, the young people mix with the members of
Vita Nova, and one young man confides that his father has a long-term drink
problem and has been in and out of rehab.
‘We’d been going about three years when we first started calling it the “authentic
voice”,’ says Simon Bull, chief executive of Vita Nova, and one of the original founder
members. ‘I can’t remember who coined the term. It’s the idea that kids take it more
seriously if it’s coming from the horse’s mouth, rather than from a copper, a
probation officer or a doctor. I suppose it had become clear to us that we were doing
more than just prevention work with the schools. Going in there with the play was
having an effect on our members, the volunteers who were acting in the play – OK,
they were being given the opportunity to “put something back”, maybe to make some
kind of restitution, but it was more than that. Little by little they seemed to be growing
in confidence. Being part of Vita Nova was having a profound effect on their own lives.
‘Of course you don’t realise these things all at once,’ he continues. ‘Vita Nova
started out as a one trick pony, really. We had the play, the share session and that
was it. I don’t think we’d thought much about where it was going, or how it would
impact upon us as people.’
After the first couple of years with Scratchin’ the Surface, Vita Nova became a
registered charity. ‘It became apparent that there was work to be done,’ says Simon.
The work in the schools was going very well and Vita Nova had started work on some
other devised theatre pieces. Sharon helped them to make a play called The Mule –
about drugs trafficking globally and locally – and a version of A Midsummer Night’s
Dream involving recovering addicts, children and the local police.
‘That was fantastic! You know what addicts and the police can be like – it really
broke down some barriers,’ says Simon. ‘And it was very visible in Boscombe.’ Vita
Nova is based very near to Boscombe, one of the most deprived wards in the south
of England. Access to employment, education, housing and healthcare is restricted,
and there is an exceptionally high incidence of alcohol and drugs misuse. ‘And all
of the things that go with that,’ comments Simon.
Stage Str