FRESH from their success at the Edinburgh Fringe, performers from the Sundial Theatre Company will bring the play ‘Animal Management’ back to Cirencester next week.

Based at Cirencester Sixth Form College, the theatre company won an audience each day in Edinburgh through intense marketing including sitting on the Royal Mile with tape across their mouths.

The play, a collaboration between college students and writer director Duncan Walthew, explores the idea of a reality TV show for schools.

The plot centres on an intense learning facility where lagging students board and are constantly filmed.

They are given rewards for good test results and positive behaviour, as well as punishments for rule-breaks. And it’s no coincidence that the subject they’re failing in is Maths, since the motif of numbers underpins the play’s central concern – the worrying act of turning young people into walking statistics to be analysed numerically.

On top of this, ‘ordinary’ school pupils vote for their favourite ‘competitors’ based on what they’ve seen in live streams.

The six students in focus represent various character types – the geeky teacher’s pet, the wild child, the introvert and so on – and even the audience might find themselves aligning with a favourite.

Audience feedback at the Edinburgh Fringe was extremely positive and the Scotsman described the show as ‘an involving yarn’ with an ‘engaging young cast who bring truth to their hormonally-charged characters.'

See ‘Animal Management’ at the Sundial Theatre on Wednesday, September 12. 7.30pm. £8/£6. Book tickets online at sundial-theatre.co.uk or telephone the Box Office on 0333 666 3366.

If you are interested in performing arts courses or the Sundial Theatre Company at Cirencester College please contact the Student Journey Team at Cirencester on email student.journeyteam@cirencester.ac.uk.