Young actors bring Bassett to life on stage

The festival is a nationwide celebration of new writing for youth, and the biggest youth festival of its kind in the world, this year celebrating 21 years, with 500 youth companies and schools up and down the country taking part.

Bassett, one of the 12 plays selected by The National Theatre this year, is by exciting young Mansfield playwright James Graham. Set in Wootton Bassett, this gritty play explores issues including repatriation, war, bullying, identity and friendship.

Cast member Ellen Hendry,14, from John of Gaunt School, said: "None of us grew up watching repats. None of us live in Wootton Bassett. In fact, I'm not sure if any of us have even been to a repatriation, but somehow, we've managed to get inside the heads of the 14 Wootten Bassett Year 11s for whom watching repatriations of young soldiers killed in Afghanistan was a regular occurrence in their home town.

"Of course with all theatre, when playing any role, you have to research the backstory and appreciate the context, but getting to grips with something so similar to our own lives but, in so many ways, so different too, was a huge challenge.”

The play, which featured a cast of 14 local young people aged 13-19, from Trowbridge, Bradford on Avon, Westbury, Chippenham and Frome, was presented by local youth group Characters Stage Company, and directed by Bristol-based Sophie Jacobs-Wyburn. She said "The young actors who form the cast are very emotionally involved and take great responsibility for portraying the emotions that the writer has put forward…it’s quite a complex balance and it’s taken a great deal of maturity and skill."

Cast member Isobel Pittman,15, from Clarendon College, said: "Rehearsing and performing Basset has been a great experience for us which we have enjoyed thoroughly. It tackles many serious and important themes and issues. It made me start paying attention to what all the characters have had to deal with growing up, as well as we as a generation as a whole. In the play, some of the characters have grown up already fed up with local soldiers from their town having to fight in Afghanistan, and just wish it would stop while others may have opposite views. It has been a very eye-opening experience for all of the cast and has made us extremely aware of issues some of us may have paid very little attention to before.”

Characters Stage Company has been running for three years and was created by writer/producer Moira Townsend Williams to provide opportunities for young people to produce great work, with a particular emphasis on new writing.

One of the cast members, Chelsea Hughes, 18, currently doing a BTech in Performance Arts at Wiltshire College wrote and recorded Dear Charlie especially for the show. The song is a tribute to the friend that the characters in the play have lost to the war in Afghanistan. Sophie Jacobs-Wyburn said “I think we are very privileged that such a talented singer/songwriter such as Chelsea has been able to give us another insight as to how a young person views these particular problematic issues that are explored through Bassett."

Izzy says that she “hopes that everyone who has seen the play so far has left with the same message we have received by performing it, that war is always there and effecting young people and it won't ever stop until someone has the courage to stand up to what is wrong. The cast has also benefited from rehearsing this play by becoming very close and forming a tight-knit group of friends. For me seeing everyone and having fun rehearsing is the highlight of my weekend.”

Bassett will next be seen at the egg theatre, Bath on May 1.Then it runs in a double bill with new play Over 18 , created by Characters Stage Company’s Devising group, at St Margaret’s Hall, Bradford on Avon on July 9 and at the Arc Theatre again on July 16/17h.

At the end of June, some companies will be selected to show their play at The National Theatre as part of their festival.