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The Theatre Centre Production – ‘Rise Up’ performed at Harris Boys Academy East Dulwich

Review by Christopher Fraser (A3 Year 8)

The play on Monday 21^st September showed us that sometimes history can be exciting. It taught us that male and female people of different skin colours don’t need to fight about their differences, because everyone is equal.

This play explained the freedom riders’ campaign with only four actors doing each scene and being different characters. Many students were confused about what the play was about when it started, but understood the campaign much better when the play had finished.

The history the play was about was exciting, sometimes sad, and sometimes depressing. But I could see it was very carefully planned. I thought that the history it showed was accurate and in full detail. The play had spectacular twists and the characters made me and other boys in the audience learn about the struggle to get equal rights and about the history of how skin colour could separate people.

I hope that the company will produce more plays like this one and help others learn more about history through serious issues, comedy and laughter.

Christopher Fraser (A3 Year 8)

The production ‘Rise Up’ took student audiences through the ‘freedom ride’ campaigns of the 1960s in the United States of America, with a particular focus on the freedom riders’ journey from Washington DC to New Orleans. The production received a fantastic response from students and staff for its innovative characterisation of everyone from the cigar toting Governor Patterson, Student Leader Diane Nash, and even President John F. Kennedy. 

Special note must also be made of the stage management and set design which took on the form of the side of a greyhound bus, and the seamless audio cues that lent significant impact to events in the story such as the bus burning in Anniston.  We were very pleased to have welcomed the Theatre Centre to Harris Boys' Academy to deliver a professional production that will be remembered by students and staff alike, and used as a basis for further investigation of topics such as racial segregation, human rights, the legal system and the ethics of protest.

R. Walsh

Deputy Director for Humanities