Introduction to plays

Having three plays to choose from for this year's Common Ground, it has brought much anticipation for finding out which play will be directed and who will be casted in which play. The three plays which will be directed are: Frontline by Che Walker, 13 by Mike Bartlett and Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker.

Frontline is a play full of strip bars, weed, crack, lost old men, unemployed actors and many more. A play based outside the tube at night you would expect many problems with drunkies and people looking for trouble and all would collide in a riptide of chaos in the streets of London. To me, being on the 'Frontline' is being at the front of all things. All problems that you face - may that be struggle, survival of the fittest, being on top or just being in the presence of something big. It makes me think about being in control making sure that all the decisions that are made are because of yourself not anyone else.
In my opinion the towns that live on the 'frontline' would be towns that have a high risk rate in terms of robberies and murders, an example of this would be somewhere like Tottenham. A place where negative things are more likely to happen than positives, especially right before and after the riots. The people that would live the frontline life would be people that would always be the ones willing to take a risk first to see the outcome, the ones that would do anything just for a cause and the ones who just want to be number one.

13 on the other hand is a play full of dreams and waking up not knowing what will happen next. I feel that this play is a play about expecting the unexpected and that many things can change in life in a click of a button. It's a play where you have to find your inner demon and to release all positive energy and keep in the negative ones, this way you'll be able to show your darkest secrets. As our world becomes even more confusing and the number of voices we hear are increasing by each minute or two, this style of multi-layered, collaborative and confused play is the only type to mirror our postmodern and difficult world. While we have to deal with excess in everyday life, theatre must respond to it, letting people know that there's more to theatre than just performing problems - it gives people an insight into the world we live in. 13 is a very complex play in its variety, tackling huge, almost incomprehensible questions, but in doing so it asks each and every one of us to interrogate our own beliefs and values and opens up a disclosure which must and will take place.

Our Country's Good is a play set in 1787. Many people would be pickpocket thieves and many things that were against the law like it is today like prostitution. Just like reality when most convicts were sent to Australia from England the same happens in this play with many troubles still to come when they reach. The first problem already being them getting shipped over a number of months in a cramp and tight ship. One of the key themes that runs through the play is 'theatre's function and its potential to 'change lives'.
The activities we did to tie in with this was rather interesting, the beginning one which had us writing the questions 'what would we do without theatre?' and 'what difference does theatre make to your life?'. My answer was as simple as 'Theatre makes a huge difference in my life because it's all drama, there are hardly any boundries and to me life is all about taking risks so we learn each day.'