Final whistle nears for play aiming to show sectarianism the red card
Pupils work together in meaningful ways
THERE are 10 minutes to go in the Old Firm derby and Rangers are one up when Celtic score.
Understandably, the green side of the Park Main High Assembly side goes wild.
A group of noisy schoolchildren drawn from two Erskine Primary schools, St John Bosco and Bargarran, bounce up and down on the spot singing “If you know you’re history…” Not all of them are even Celtic fans.
We’re a little too early for the Old Firm Scottish Cup semi-final. It’s Friday afternoon and Celtic’s goal comes halfway through a performance of Divided City, a play performed by and for primary school children through the auspices of the Citizens Theatre. But when the final whistle blows on today’s performance it will be one of the last. After five years the Divided City project is coming to an end. For the moment at least.
Based on the novel by Theresa Breslin, Divided City is a short play that tackles the issues of sectarianism, racism and friendship. With funding from the Scottish Government’s Safer Communities’ Tackling Sectarianism Fund, the Citizens Theatre’s learning department has helped nearly 2,000 pupils rehearse and perform the play to parents and families in schools in Glasgow, Renfrewshire, North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire.
But in this case the play might not be the thing. Or not the only thing at least. The pupils have also explored the themes of the play in the classroom. And as is the case in Erskine, schoolchildren have also been mixing and performing alongside those from other schools.
“Ultimately we want to be able to break down barriers in local communities so that children who don’t normally get the opportunity to mix with one another, or play with one another, or even meet one another, do all of that but become really good friends as well,” explains Angela Smith, who has been co-ordinating the project for the Citizens. “The aim is bringing two schools together and hopefully at the end of it the kids will continue to be friends.”
And it appears to be working. “We know children are still meeting up outside school, children who never played together before, who kept very much to their own neighbourhoods and they’re making the time to meet,” adds Smith.
Equally importantly, Breslin believes, the play has helped change parents’ attitudes. “What people are saying to me is that it’s made them think about things. It’s made them think about casual remarks that they make might affect people and hurt people.”
Karen MacKechnie, head teacher of St John Bosco Primary School, argues the experience has been “lifechanging” for her pupils and those of Bargarran and points the way forward for the schools which will be sharing a campus in 2018.
“Being part of the Divided City project has afforded the pupils of St John Bosco and Bargarran primary schools the invaluable opportunity to work together in a really meaningful and thoughtprovoking way,” she says.
Ross Kelly and Sam McDonald are proof of that. One’s a Rangers fan, one’s a Celtic fan. Both are playing Celtic fans in the play though. And they’re still talking to each other. “I loved all of it,” says Kelly when the curtain comes down. The Citizens hopes that other schoolchildren will have the same opportunity in the future. It is pursuing further funding to extend the project into other local authority areas. “Even if we don’t we’ve now left a legacy,” suggests Smith.
Of course the fact that the project is seen to be required at all is a reflection of the reality that sectarianism remains an issue in Scotland, one that might come into greater focus when the Old Firm derby returns as a regular fixture.
Mhari Thomson, whose twin girls Abbi and Alix, performed in the play and who is herself a Parkhead season ticket holder, thinks that, unfortunately, projects such as Divided City are still all too necessary. “It’s a huge problem. It’s not as bad here as some of the places in Glasgow. However I know there is a problem. This has to stop. This has to change.”
We want to be able to break down barriers for children who don’t normally get the opportunity to mix with one another