Safety message plays at Fringe

POWERFUL performance: Oldham Mayor Councillor Richard Knowles and Mayoress Valerie Knowles, left, with Norah Lopez, Robert Mallard, Sarah Nelson and Mark Newsome

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Split Second, a powerful drama emphasising the consequences of careless driving following the death of 15-year-old Chris Dale, from Moorside, has been performed at a number of venues, including schools in Oldham.

Now the production by Oldham Theatre Workshop is heading North and will today play to audiences at the Ediburgh Fringe Festival. Oldham youth worker Jodie Barber, who is travelling with the party, has written this blog of how the group is preparing for their week-long run at the Fringe


Sunday August 21: Day 1 at the Edinburgh Fringe...
Nine Oldhamers, one early-morning start, four hours on a train, and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

At 7.30am on Sunday we set off on what will be a journey of a lifetime. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2011 is ours for the taking as we begin our mission to create a generation of safer young drivers but on an international platform.

We arrived in Edinburgh at lunchtime to begin our week-long run at the Fringe with the amazing The Split Second theatre piece.

The piece is part of the Every Life Matters campaign and has been written by Sarah Nelson, from Oldham Theatre Workshop. Tomorrow (Monday) will be our first performance at the festival and with a cast of young talented people from Oldham we are doing our bit to put Oldham on the map.

On arrival we made our way up one of Edinburgh’s many steep hills to our base for the week — a nice apartment on the Royal Mile.

It safe to say awe-struck sums up how we were all feeling. For many of us this is our first time in Edinburgh — in fact in Scotland — and the scene that greeted us on arrival was breathtaking.

Thousands of people from across all nations are here enjoying the festival — the streets are strewn with every imaginable form of theatre and entertainment, from contortionists to clowns, magicians to mime acts. The place is alive and the atmosphere is buzzing.

As we don’t start our performances until tomorrow, we had the day to explore and absorb this amazing festival.

As the sun set over the Scottish capital we went to see our first Fringe show, an amazing improvised musical called Show Stoppers — a theatre performance based on audience participation and improvised musical theatre.

Unbelievably as we took our seats we were joined by none other than the rock legend Brian May and his wife Anita Dobson — we were star-struck!

As we walked back to our apartment at midnight we are all reflective — tomorrow we begin out own contribution to this amazing festival.

Our first performance is looming and as the cast go off to bed feeling excited and nervous we can only hope that our Edinburgh audience appreciate and embrace the Split Second as much as our audiences have back home in Oldham.


Civic send-off for drama
OLDHAM Mayor Councillor Richard Knowles attended a special performance of the Split Second play before it headed for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The powerful production by Oldham Theatre Workshop, in partnership with Oldham Youth Council, is part of the Every Life Matters campaign to emphasise the plight of careless driving following the tragic death of 15-year-old Chris Dale in June, 2009.

Chris, from Bramble Avenue, Moorside, was killed by a young driver as he crossed Lees Road in Salem, near the junction with Wellyhole Street.

Saturday’s performance came just before the play is showcased in Edinburgh.