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Musical play will take you to the Greek

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It will be all Greek for audiences attending a hilarious student play called ‘Lysistrata’ by Aristophanes adapted by Ellen McLaughlin.

The play centres on one ambitious woman’s mission to achieve peace in Greece; she calls for women from Greece to unite and agree to declare a sex strike in an attempt to encourage their men to give up the Peloponnesian War.

Maya Clarke who is a second year student on the Performing and Production Arts Diploma at Cornwall College St Austell explained what a “huge learning curve” working on Lysistrata has been.

“We have been pushed physically, mentally and even had to adjust our own personal lives in order to be successful during this project,” she explained.

“It has been humorous, challenging and above all extremely fun.”

The students worked with specialist teachers in all three areas of performing arts; acting, dancing and singing. They underwent a gruelling process of intense rehearsals to blend the three specialisms together and to establish the final performance.

Course Manager and Director Lydia Day said taking a classical Greek script and developing it into a musical has been no easy task.

“We’ve added songs to the script to establish the musical element and we have been in contact with the playwright Ellen McLaughlin who has granted us some creative control over the script, which has really given our students a unique opportunity to explore creative ideas and develop their characters,” she added.

“The students have really worked as a team to achieve this piece and we are extremely proud of them all.”

The performance is at Keay Theatre, Cornwall College St Austell on the 13th June at 7pm.

To be taken back to 411BC Ancient Athens, call 01726 226 454 to book your tickets (£7/£5) or for more information please visit Facebook page @LaunchCornwallCollege.

For more information on the range of Performing Arts courses available across The Cornwall College Group visit www.cornwall.ac.uk or call 0330 123 2523.