Next week Level 3 Subsidiary Diploma Performing Arts students are performing the department’s first play of the year, ‘Attempts on Her Life’ by Martin Crimp. 

With an all-female group of students, Performing Arts tutor Georgia Norton worked with the students to pick out topics, with feminism prevalent in their discussions. The play is a rollercoaster of late 20th century obsessions with themes including mental health, culture, rape, murder and fascism. 

“We have a group of young girls who are passionate and strong, stand on their own two feet, have jobs and look after themselves and I wanted something that would showcase their independence and progressive way of thinking,” said Georgia. “They brought in their own experiences about how they’ve been approached by men and things that have happened at home; their openness and honesty really helped the process.”

‘Attempts on Her Life’, regarded as Crimp’s boldest and most innovative play, was first performed at the Royal Court in 1997 and since it’s debut has been translated into twenty languages. The lines in the text are not assigned to a particular character, enabling the reader to put their own interpretation on the piece and giving the students the opportunity to make it something unique.

“The students have put lots of ideas forward and were really committed from the start,” Georgia added. “We would have lessons where we would sit and discuss a variety of topics and a lot of the time they brought in things they were keen to talk about, so we had a lot of time to really explore it in depth.”

Attempts on Her Life will run at the College’s Sarah Siddons Theatre on Wednesday 11th January and Thursday 12th January at 7pm, with a matinee performance also taking place on Thursday 12th at 1.30pm. Tickets cost £3.50 for CWC Staff and £1.50 for Students (with an ID card) and can be booked in advance via Eventbrite.