Chronicle January 2021

26 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

The OX2 Collective By Amy Walters, Programme and Marketing Manager at The North Wall

Last term, The North Wall and St Edward’s announced the launch of a new youth theatre company, OX2 Collective. The twelve-strong company will include six students from The Swan School in Marston and six pupils from St Edward’s Theatre Soc, who together with members of Teddies’ Tech Club will work towards a performance at The North Wall as part of the National Theatre Connections festival in May.

playwrights of today, performed by the theatre-makers of tomorrow. This year will mark The North Wall’s eighth year as Connections partner venue, with young companies spending the May Leave Weekend watching each other’s productions, and taking part in workshops with professional theatre-makers. ‘What’s brilliant about the festival is that it’s all about uniting young people from a huge range of backgrounds who share a common love for theatre,’ said The North Wall co-director Ria Parry. ‘The National Theatre commissions 10 new plays every year specifically to be performed by these young people, exploring themes and issues that are at the heart of their lives.’

Katrina Eden, Head of Co-Curricular Drama at St Edward’s, and Abie Walton, The North Wall’s participation officer, will lead the company as joint directors. ‘We are so thrilled to start work with OX2 Collective this year, it’s been a good few years in conversation and a project that we are both very passionate about,’ said

Abie. ‘It’s an amazing opportunity for the company to be part of a nationwide festival, celebrating theatre and young artists.’ National Theatre Connections brings together over 300 youth theatre companies and 6,000 young people each year in venues across the country. The festival stages new plays written by some of the brightest

OX2 Collective will perform Wind / Rush Generation(s) by Mojisola Adebayo as their first production. Set in a university common room, the characters gather round a Ouija board to confront the spirits of British history, Empire, and slavery, in a play that fuses physical theatre, absurdism and poetry to explore the nation’s colonial past. Katrina Eden says, ‘I love absurdism and surrealism in all plays – by

Pupils from the Swan School who are now part of the OX2 Collective alongside Teddies pupils.