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New play from police in Portsmouth gets youngsters thinking about underage drinking

Press Releases

Published: 01/04/2009


Last week teenagers across the city were treated to a break from their classes to watch a specially constructed piece of theatre written by a PCSO from Fratton, in order to drive home the message about the dangers of underage drinking.

PCSO Helen Jolley is an experienced actress, and has worked directing various pieces of theatre for the last seven years, as well as working in the Copnor and North End Safer Neighbourhoods Team. She wrote and directed this play specifically for the Teen Drink Safe project, with a view to making the messages clear, and portraying situations the young audiences may be able to relate to.

The story is of a group of three friends, all in their last year of school. Kristian Watts and Susannah Barrett play boyfriend and girlfriend Ryan and Charlie (Charlotte), and are a pair who regularly hang out at the local park drinking beer. They befriend Mickey, played by Adam Rood, who isn’t so used to drinking and is unsure, but succumbs to peer pressure and begins to drink too.

As Ryan starts drinking more often he convinces Charlie to steal beer for him, and he becomes aggressive and gets into fights, but because he is drunk when they happen he doesn’t remember them. After he is sentenced to 20 hours community service for beating someone up, he briefly stops drinking and his friends hope this will be the end to his destructive action, but then his drinking continues.

Ryan drinks more and more often, and ends up attacking another person, and being given a two month sentence in a young offender’s institution, which isolates him from Charlie and Mickey, and means he misses his exams at school. He realises the person he has turned into has no future and is not likable, and he doesn’t like how he has changed from being fun and popular and vows to change his ways.

During the play you see portrayal of fights, getting sick from drinking and blood on the clothes of Ryan, all to show the real possibilities of getting drunk. It may have shocked some of those watching, but showing the realities of underage drinking is a necessary action.

As part of an ongoing campaign across the city to tackle underage drinking, the performances were specifically written to capture the interest of the young audience, and prompt them to think of their own experiences with alcohol.

The ‘stage’ area was simply a space in the centre of the hall and the audience are sat in rows set around all four sides so that they can see all angles of the performance, to help their understanding of the story that was being told, and also feel more involved in the action. This was deliberately done to help the young people identify with the characters and their actions.

The play was performed at a number of schools and centres for young people throughout the week, visiting the Nuffield Studio in Southampton, as well as South Downs College, Harbour School, Mayfield School, the Brook Centre and City Boys School, all in Portsmouth.

Sergeant Stuart Snow said, “This play was the culmination of a huge amount of work from Helen, who has used her extensive skills in directing and acting to create a really impactive piece of theatre. The play lasted for over half an hour and the youngsters watching were totally enthralled, which is a testament to the skills of the actors involved.

“The messages were put across in a clear and thought provoking way, which is important when working with people of this age – as well as informing them of the facts you need to get them involved so that they can relate to the messages and understand why underage drinking is so dangerous.”

Gary Appleton, director of the specialist arts college within Mayfield School, said, “This really was an excellent piece of theatre in education. There was clear action and symbolism in the piece, both of which are skills the youngsters can identify with. The performance was very tight and the message was clear, it was full of energy and pace which is good to keep the attention of the audience.  A targeted performance for children who may face these issues themselves, whether it’s now or in the future.”

 


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