Part of the Darke Visions Festival celebrating the life & works of Nick Darke, Cornwall’s finest playwright, the DARKE VISIONS SHOWCASES on Monday January 25th are presented by Kernow Education Arts Partnership, The Works (Dance & Theatre Cornwall) & Hall for Cornwall, with support from the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site – Cultural Programme, Arts Council England, Cornwall Council and The Seafood Restaurant, Padstow.

Showcasing just some of the outcomes from the inspiring education programme – a central focus of the eighteen-month long Darke Visions Festival – the matinee and evening platforms on Monday 25th January are a celebration by over twenty Cornish secondary schools and youth groups who have used Nick’s work as starting points for the creation of drama and music.

Introduced by Nick’s widow, Jane Darke, the Darke Visions Showcase evening programme includes songs from Brannel, Treviglas and Richard Lander Schools – including Kernow & The River, The Mighty Ocean & Chamber to the Grave – alongside a diversity of dramatic works.

Jane Darke said: ‘This festival is introducing Nick to another generation and my hope is that they will take him into the future.’

Callington Community College Year 11 Drama students and Bodmin College students present two interpretations of Cider With Rosie, which was originally adapted for the stage by Nick from Laurie Lee’s novel in 1981, while Redruth School Year 12 Drama students bring life and energy to The King of Prussia’s diverse characters.

Camborne Science & Community College present ‘Darke Depths’, with a humorous nod to Nick’s work and familiar characters from his plays, in a new piece set in a futuristic Cornwall submerged by global warming. Richard Lander School present the second act of dark comedy The Body set on a Nuclear Missile base somewhere in Cornwall; and Newquay Tretherras School play with three extracts from Nick’s works Ting Tang Mine, The King of Prussia and The Body.

Treviglas College’s Year 10 students celebrate their school’s personal connection with Nick Darke through the play ‘Knock out the pin! The Story of Newquay Lifeboat’, originally written for Treviglas students by Nick back in 1994; and a special choral finale from three of the schools will bring the evening to a close.

Exhibited in the Hall for Cornwall foyer and projected on to the stage during the showcases is artwork from a countywide project called ‘Journeys’. Art students from Looe, Tretherras, Wadebridge, St Joseph’s Launceston, Penrice, St Austell College, Poltair, Richard Lander, Camborne, Redruth, Bodmin, Helston, Falmouth and Saltash schools have taken the film ‘The Wrecking Season’ by Nick and Jane Darke and explored its ideas through drawing, painting, sculpture, textiles and animation, each undertaking their own individual creative journey having been inspired by the same rich source.

Amanda Harris of KEAP said: ‘This showcase is our tribute to Nick and we wish he could be with us to share it.’

As well as the DARKE VISIONS SHOWCASE MATINEE event on the same day, this is also a sister event to the DARKE NIGHTS dance showcase taking place on Sunday January 24th. For more information on this and the wider Darke Visions Festival please see www.nickdarke.net/darkvisions and follow links to events in the What’s On section of this site.

Image: HNTPhotography