Issue 8 – Monday 7 August
The Beginnings of the Fear Brigade
As we started to prepare for Global Village 2006 we were keen to find a way to involve the Under 11s as much as possible in the programme. We approached Adrian Mitchell to ask if he could write a story that would not only touch on all of the ten themes, but also galvanise the young people on the camp into action, empowering them and allowing them to believe that the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals is possible and that they can be actively involved in making that possibility a reality. Far from being daunted by this challenge, Adrian replied that he thought the Fear Brigade could help…
He told us about some characters he’d been working on for two years; a runaway girl called Jenny, a Spanish dog and a Mystery Tramp.
They meet up in the scary backstreets of the city of Grout.
Overcoming their fears of each other, they become friends and decide to form The Fear Brigade.
They recruit local kids and create a spectacular Fear Engine so they can ride around the city putting out people’s Fears.
It sounded perfect, so we asked him to write a story book and a play version of it.
The play will be performed tonight at 7:45pm on the Outdoor Stage.
It is an epic, magical realist performance with many songs, the music was written by Andrew Diskson, who has also directed the show.
Miriam Nabarro is the designer and Andy Burton and Gill Bond of the Satellites Theatre Company are co-directors and makers, with Andy also playing Sid Mudgeon, the Mystery Tramp.
Two professional actors who themselves grew up in the Woodcraft Folk, Katie Fabel and Eden Ballantyne, also join the cast.
The rest of the actors, production and creative teams are young people from The Woodcraft Folk and IFM-SEI.