School life given comedy twist by Perse Theatre Company

29 Jan 2020

The student-led Perse Theatre Company (PTC) have written and performed their debut play Saved by the Bell.

Set in a school, the comedy production centred on the conflict between two of the characters and was performed to a packed audience in the Gallery Studio.

Lewis Black (Upper Sixth) set up PTC at the start of the academic year as a platform for pupils to write, direct and stage their own pieces.

He said: “I started the group as part of my community prefect duties because I thought it would be fun to have something inclusive like this. It’s been good because it was the first opportunity to act at this school for many of the members and it was nice to give them that chance.”

Saved by the Bell grew from early meetings of PTC, with the writing being an extremely collaborative process.

Lewis said: “We drafted some fun ideas and decided to work on this idea set in a school environment. From there, we came up with different character traits and how we could create a comedic effect.

“A lot of people had different ideas they wanted to put in and all the students were able to contribute to their characters. Although we had a script, there was still room for a bit of improvisation on the night.

“It was a lot of fun to work on. We received very positive feedback and everyone seemed to enjoy the show.”