18
Aug
Ashville pupils take original 'rock musical' to Edinburgh Fringe
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A group of pupils and alumni from Ashville are taking their rock musical Beth to the Edinburgh Fringe.
This marks the first time in the school's 150-year history that students will perform at the Fringe – a 25-day festival which hosts over 3,000 different comedy, music, and theatre productions in venues across Edinburgh.
The 70-minute rock musical is a gender-swapped, contemporary reimagining of Shakespeare's Macbeth, written and directed by Ashville's performing arts team.
Karl Boyd, Ashville's director of performing arts, describes it as follows:
It transforms Macbeth into Beth - an ambitious warrior whose pursuit of power, destiny and desire drives the story forward. The show combines a powerful rock soundtrack, fast-paced choreography and dynamic staging to create a theatrical experience that is both intimate and intense.
More than 20 students and old Ashvillians will help bring the show to life. They will be led by Gabby Salvin, an Ashville graduate currently training at Leeds Conservatoire, who plays Beth, 'a complex anti-heroine whose ambition and vulnerability sit at the heart of the story.'
Gabby Salvin as Beth
One of the show's unique attractions is its innovative use of technology. Each audience member will don wireless headphones through which the soundtrack will be played. Karl Boyd describes the thought process behind this move:
Audience members will hear every whisper in every corner of Glamis Castle, every slice of the dagger in the Queen’s bedroom, every disembodied cry upon the heath — creating a theatre experience that places viewers directly in the thick of the action. The result is theatre as lived experience: close, immediate, and eerily physical.
Ashville has an established tradition of producing talented creatives and performers. Downtown Abbey star Jim Carter is an Ashville alumnus, and lends his name to the school's drama studio. The cast of Beth are no doubt hoping the show will help them follow in his footsteps.
Ashville head, Rhiannon Wilkinson, said:
Taking a show to the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time is a significant achievement and reflects the creativity, imagination, commitment and ambition of everyone involved. The pupils have embraced every aspect of the creative process and have worked tirelessly to bring this original interpretation to life.
Beth will be performed between August 24 and 29 at Edinburgh's theSpace, one of the original Fringe venues located just off Royal Mile.
Tickets for the production are available through the Edinburgh Fringe box office, and cost £10 each (£8 concessions).
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