Fable becomes a fairytale for refugee children; Play leads to North East trip.
Byline: Tony HendersonFOR two months North East writer Peter Mortimer worked with pupils in a Palestinian refugee camp to perform a play based on a fable he had penned.
Now the venture is to have a fairytale ending with 10 girls and their teachers from the school in Shatila camp in Beirut due to arrive in the North East next month to stage the play at a series of venues.
It will be the first time that the girls, aged 12 and 13, will have seen the world outside the camp.
The children were born and grew up in Shatila camp, scene of a massacre in 1982, where up to 3,000 people were killed.
The camp, with its ramshackle buildings, is home to around 17,000 people in an area no bigger than a cricket field.
More than pounds 22,000 has been raised in the North East to bring the youngsters to the region for an eight-day stay.
A seven-mile sponsored walk along the North Tyneside coast, organised by Cullercoats-based Peter, raised pounds 7,000, while Newcastle College Fine Art Department donated pounds 1,500 from a charity auction, and pounds 500 came from a Words & Music night run by writer Jeff Price at The Cumberland Arms in Byker, Newcastle.
North Tyneside Council gave pounds 6,000, Arts Council England North-East, pounds 4,600, the Co-operative membership pounds 1,900, and pounds 500 came from the Arab-British Centre.
One of the performances at the Sage in Gateshead has already been fully booked. The Shatila youngsters will also experience the greenery and wide open spaces of rural Northumberland while being put up for free by the Riverdale Hall Hotel in Bellingham, with a performance at Bellingham Town Hall.
They will also enjoy a taste of the North East with a meal of fish and chips at the seafront Queen's Head Hotel in Cullercoats, not far from their base at the Northumbria Hotel and Language School in Whitley Bay.
It's a far cry from Shatila, where the school's steel gates are topped by barbed wire. Peter went to Shatila after hearing about the camp from friend Pat Riddell, a teacher from Whickham in Gateshead who had made a working visit.
"Shatila is very cramped and smelly, and is not a pleasant place to be. It was a total culture shock and I was all at sea for a while," said Peter, who is artistic director of Cloud Nine Theatre Productions.
Working with the pupils, who had only a rudimentary grasp of English, he wrote a basic play script based on his fable Croak, The King & a Change in the Weather.
"It was the hardest thing I have ever done in all the years I have worked in theatre, but the kids were absolutely fantastic," he said. "It was something of a minor miracle, but they performed the play in English to camp residents on my final day." The idea was formed to bring the children to the North East, with the battle to win visas and passports one of the biggest hurdles.
"It will be an extraordinary a experience for them and an amazing number of people have rallied round to make this possible," said Peter who will return to Shatila for a week to rehearse the play.
SHATILA GROUP'S PROGRAMME
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 23 Customs House, South Shields. Reception, readings from Peter Mortimer''s book, Camp Shatila plus play. Performances 2pm and 7pm.
Thursday, September 24. Visit to Star of the Sea school in Whitley Bay. Lunch at The Queen's Head, Cullercoats. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 Performances of the play at the Saville Exchange, North Shields, plus North Tyneside youth Theatre Tantarra show.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 Matinee 2pm performance at Saville Exchange again with Theatre Tantarra. Guests at the official opening of Whitley Bay Playhouse.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 Visit to Bellingham as guests of Riverdale Hall Hotel. Performance in Town Hall 7pm, plus Northumbrian p i p e rs. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 Events and performances at Sage Gateshead, afternoon/evening, including live Palestinian musicians, plus readings from Peter Mortimer''s book Camp Shatila. Farewell party.
CAPTION(S):
ADVENTURE Peter Mortimer who spent 10 weeks working with youngsters in a refugee camp in Beirut. Left and below, some of the pictures he took of the pupils and the ramshackle camp while there.
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| Publication: | The Journal (Newcastle, England) |
|---|---|
| Geographic Code: | 4EUUK |
| Date: | Aug 12, 2009 |
| Words: | 709 |
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