Guest Blog: Director Ross Drury On THIS NOISY ISLE at Brighton Fringe

This Noisy Isle is quite different to any other production that I've previously made for young audiences. Children are the masters of this universe and the production puts them right into the driving seat from the beginning of this treasure hunt-style show. When they arrive at the theatre, they are given maps and must journey through the streets to encounter characters, solve clues and take their families on this adventure.

I was thrilled to come on board with Spun Glass Theatre to create their latest family show. The company have set a precedent for tackling difficult topics for a young audience, recently staging Princess Charming - a cabaret for kids which delved into tricky subjects relating to gender stereotypes, such as non-binary identities. With this production, we wanted to Take That work further and embed the ideas of the show within the way it is performed.

This Noisy Isle appeals directly to children's innate sense of play and encourages them to take on new roles and ideas. Central to the story is an exploration of the refugee crisis - and the treasure hunt structure reflects some key experiences of those who have been displaced - struggling through bureaucratic checkpoints, looking for shelter, forging a new path.

They meet characters from The Tempest who guide them through the strange new land that they find themselves in. England becomes 'This Noisy Isle', and the magic and poetry of The Tempest blend with the real surroundings to create a surreal and new world this audience must navigate.

We felt that it was right to build the show around such an iconic text from the British canon to tap into the ideas we have about the British Isles and reframe them. The Tempest has often been an allegory for the UK, as seen in the Olympics opening ceremony where Kenneth Branagh spoke Caliban's words to invoke a jangling Industrial Revolution.

I know that bringing together interactive, treasure hunt theatre and The Tempest is incredibly effective for young people, as I visited schools in Brighton and Norfolk to run workshops to better understand their perspective on the refugee crisis and their ideas about The Tempest.

We used drama to dig down into their thoughts on this subject - what had they seen on the news? What was important to them to understand about refugees? Did anyone have any direct experience of displacement? We also explored the characters from the text and the setting as metaphors for arriving in a strange, new place, and the children were excited and inspired by this.

It's important that children are given opportunities to come to their own conclusions about the refugee crisis. Theatre is a really important tool to facilitate this, and particularly the set-up of This Noisy Isle; the style encourages them to have agency within the story, as they are discovering the narrative and characters. In this way, the show strives not to tell the children what to think, but presents them with a few ideas and situations that they experience for themselves.

The production is aimed at children aged 7-11, and in 20 years those children will be leading the next generation. The refugee crisis will potentially only get worse and worse as climate change and the resulting conflicts displace more people from their homes. If we can inspire children now, through play and conversation, to consider this looming crisis with empathy and consideration rather than fear and self-interest, then there may be a more humane approach in the future.

Conversation is an important aspect of the production and we aim to pose more questions than we answer. It's a vast subject and no theatre-maker could presume to cover everything and all experiences.

Instead, we hope that families will leave with lots of food for thought and parents will encourage their children to think about what they've seen and reflect further. Each audience member gets given a book with some stories to prompt more conversation and understanding long after the show has ended.

Our aim is that families will have a really fun entertaining day out at the Fringe and, in a coming together of illusion and play, children might just help us solve a global crisis.

This Noisy Isle at Brighton Fringe 31 May-1 June. Find all tour dates and venues here

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