Lion & Unicorn
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Platform Peterborough

You may remember that last year Eastern Angles found itself in an Arts Council funding crisis, which was happily resolved after a considerable public outcry. Part of that resolution was for the Ipswich-based company to broaden its outreach even further and in greater depth. As far as Peterborough,in fact. Peterborough has three theatres – the Broadway, the Cresset and the Key – but it was felt that there was a need for more community-based drama.

The result has been two-fold so far – but the project is definitely open-ended. Kate Hall, who is an education associate of the RSC and also runs Jumped-Up Theatre, has been leading a primary school script-writing programme. This draws on the oral history of the pupils, exploring their extended families' and neighbours' experience of moving to Peterborough. Transformed into ten-minute plays, these are then professionally performed and may lead to a full-length play being written from the scripts and the stories they tell. Aptly enough, this initiative is called Moving Tales.

Platform Peterborough's other strand involves two half-hour plays researched and written by Philip de Gouvela and Danusia Iwaszko. They are based on the city's cultural heritage – it does after all have a history dating back to the Bronze Age, a 12th century cathedral and a haunted museum as well as a massive post-war development extension.
The Lion & Unicorn is inspired by the plaque on the Guildhall; Lincoln Road is a story about two residents who want to stage a carnival. They have been touring to community centres through to 5 December.

- by Anne Morley-Priestman

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