STATE-WIDE cover-ups and police corruption have been brought up to date for a school production full of timeless messages.
A cast of seven sixth formers from Barnard Castle School staged the challenging farce Accidental Death of an Anarchist, by Dario Fo.
Contemporised by director of drama and play director Scott Edwards, and based on adaptations by Tom Basden in 2022 and Gavin Richards in 1979, the four-night production marked the culmination of five weeks of rehearsals by students.
It was also a trip down memory lane for Mr Edwards as it was the very first production staged by the drama group he and his friends founded when he was a sixth form student himself.
“The central themes are troublingly still as relevant as when Fo wrote the original in 1969,” he said.
“Much like Fo’s, this adaptation has gone through multiple rewrites over the past month as we have rehearsed to encompass issues ranging from Nigel Farage’s casting in I’m a Celebrity to Suella Braverman’s policies, rhetoric and subsequent dismissal. It seems that the material very much wrote itself.
“The cast proved to be an amazing sounding board for my ideas, telling me if and when I’d gone too far, and I hope the audience were as pleased as we were with the results.”
The cast comprised Issey Hoy as The Maniac, Daniel Newell as Superintendent Coffee, Will Whitburn as Inspector Prince, Ed Baker as Inspector Bradbury, Freddie Barrett as Constable Timpson, Will Te Lintelo as Constable Simpson and Hattie Whitburn as Maria Flemming.
Teachers and students provided the musical accompaniment, back stage support and technical crew.
