REGARDED as one of the plays to see at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (August 3-27), ‘Trojan Horse’ is a searing examination of what transpired during the Trojan Horse scandal in Birmingham schools during 2016.
It alleged that extremist radicals were taking over schools in the region and indoctrinating schoolchildren into a hard-line and uncompromising Islamism.
These reports turned out to be false and the play examines the origins of the scandal and the possible motivations for those wanting to foist a cloud over some faith members’ involvement in schools. In this video we hear from director co-writer and director Matt Woodhead and one of the lead actors, Annice Boparai. The play is taken from verbatim testimonies.
Trojan Horse looks powerfully at the effects the scandal had on staff, especially the governor at the heart of the row and a particular teacher, as well as the pupils themselves.
Trojan Horse is an unsparing look at the political forces at play and asks questions about identity, faith, education and discrimination and poses awkward questions for those in power.
Trojan Horse is co-written by Matt Woodhead and Helen Monks with Woodhead directing. They both run Lung Theatre.
More about Trojan Horse and to contact the theatremakers, see here: http://www.lungtheatre.co.uk/
With sincere thanks to the cast and production crew at Summerhalls, Edinburgh. Shot on August 8 on location.
Scenes from Trojan Horse, courtesy of Lung Theatre (see above for contact).
Production credits
A Big Talent Media Ltd production for http://www.asianculturevulture.com
Presenter: Sailesh Ram (http://www.twitter.com/asianculturevul)
Camera/Editing: Harry Clegg (http://www.harryclegg.com)
Producer: Suman Bhuchar for Big Talent Media (http://www.twitter.com/sumanbhuchar)