A TALENTED group of drama students from Cirencester College's Sundial Theatre Company are on their way to the Edinburgh Fringe with their new show, 'Animal Management'.

Determined to create work that actually says something, the company has worked with director and writer Duncan Walthew, who is Head of Performing Arts at the College, to offer work that challenges the imaginations of both the actors and their audiences.

In 2016 the Sundial Theatre Company took their play ‘After the Flood’ to the Edinburgh Fringe. Set at the top of a tower block in a flooded city, this thought-provoking and mature piece of speculative fiction was a success, partly because of nuanced performances. The company’s workshop process allowed the writer to collaborate closely with the cast, a process they have repeated this year.

Sundial return to the near-future with ‘Animal Management’, but this time the focus is on education instead of the environment.

In the world of the play, with normal classrooms failing students, a new conditioning unit has been built to brainwash six of them into passing their exams.

Not only that, they’re being streamed as role models for the rest of the school. Of course, things don’t go as planned.

The play is not afraid to ask big questions. What will schools become when so many jobs are taken over by automation-will they become automated too? What would happen if teaching was replaced by psychological conditioning to improve exam results?

‘Animal Management’ confronts head-on the rising tide of problems affecting young adults today: lack of prospects, declining mental health and an ever-changing education system that seems to be trying to trip them up, and puts them into a tense, ruthless and funny hour of exciting ensemble theatre.

Animal Management runs at Edinburgh Fringe from August 3-12 at 3pm at Sweet Novotel, 80 Lauriston Place, Novotel Edinburgh Centre Hotel, EH3 9DE.

The company is paired with the charity ‘Rethink Mental Illness’. Donations welcome.

Tickets can be bought at the venue’s box office, or found online on the Fringe 2018 website tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/animal-management