The winning entry of our playwriting competition written by Hannah and Sophie (Year 9), was a knock-out lunchtime performance.
The enchanting tale of Cirque de la Vie is set in Monsieur Allard’s Circus and follows Charlotte, the Ringmaster’s daughter and her newly discovered wolf companion.
Following the death of her mother subsequent distance between Charlotte and her father, the pair embark on a heartfelt journey to find her true place in the circus she proudly calls home. The cast included students from Years 7 to 9 and stage crew from Lower Sixth and is a wonderful opportunity to bring a peer’s original story to life through the collaborative process of developing new theatre from stage to page. Hannah and Sophie share their experience of the competition.
From the very first rehearsal, to the final performance, this was the most amazing experience.
The idea for this play came from films we watched together when we were younger, particularly The Greatest Showman and Dumbo. We were inspired by the vibrant and warm circus environment that these films depicted. The character of the wolf was born when we read The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell, which presented wolves as loyal friends, and so we thought a wolf would make a good friend for Charlotte. The strong animal-human bond shown in our play was inspired by books by Hannah Gold, particularly The Last Bear. We both love animals and so it made sense to us to have an animal as a main character in our play.
This whole process has really opened our eyes to the more technical side of drama, and all that is involved in producing a play. We never knew so much work went into it! To see our play produced and to watch all the characters that we created come to life was so special and we are forever grateful to the whole cast for working so hard – they are all so talented. Thank you so much to everyone who made this play a possibility.