Primary and secondary schoolchildren to learn about Syrian refugee experience;
Theatre group will perform modern day interpretation of Euripides’ anti-war tragedy The Trojan Women;
British Council education programme launched as part of Queens of Syria theatre tour premiering at Young Vic theatre.
Schoolchildren across the United Kingdom will participate in a live webcast with Syrian refugees, as part of the Queens of Syria theatre tour to the UK.
On the morning of July 7th, The Charter School in London will host an interactive school assembly event with two members of the Queens of Syria cast. Hundreds of schools across the world will be able to watch the event live and join the discussion through a webcast.
During the webcast, schoolchildren will have an opportunity to ask questions to the women about life as a refugee and to learn about the struggles the women have faced moving their families to safer locations.
Queens of Syria is the story of fifty women refugees who escaped to Jordan and who came together to create and perform their own version of The Trojan Women, the timeless Greek tragedy about the plight of women in war.
First staged in Amman in 2013 and the subject of an award-winning documentary, Queens of Syria will perform a modern retelling of this anti-war play at the Young Vic. The cast will feature 13 female Syrian refugees, who combine their own narratives of war and exile with the ancient Greek text.
To mark this occasion, the British Council has developed an education pack and accompanying films to provide teachers with resources that will help them explore the human impact of the conflict in Syria and the realities of life as a refugee. Through these resources students will have an opportunity to learn about the situation on the ground in Syria, and the difficulties that millions of refugees are facing as they flee to neighbouring countries and towards Europe.