On Monday we arrived at St Albans Abbey to work with four schools and up to 120 children. As always we start by asking the children about our African and English puppets and what they see. Mike North posed the questions: Who is rich? Who is poor? Where are they from? Who is good? Who is bad? Who are they? As always the children start with obvious stereo-type answers. The White puppet is bad, The African puppet is poor etc.
As the children looked deeper they began to notice the quality of the African cloth, the puppet's gestures and suddenly what seemed obvious no longer did. One boy shoved his hand into the air eagerly and explaimed: "The African Puppet could be a very rich chief." This answer is the reason why we are doing this tour.
We can perform and talk at long lengths about slavery then and now and nothing will change but by challenging young people to look deeper for themselves then real education and change can happen. The children worked very hard in the workshops then put on an excellent and energetic performance to teachers, parents and visitors in the Abbey. Check out the St Albans photo gallery to see for yourselves how we got on.
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