Rainbow Land Lights Up Edinburgh Fringe

The traditional pantomime cries of "he's behind you" were replaced by shouts of "press the button" during performances of Im Me and I Can, Imperial Colleges Acting With Energy theatre group production at the Edinburgh Fringe this summer.

'I'm Me and I Can' reinforced the principles of circuitry taught in the national curriculum by means of rainbow coloured sets overshadowed by the Baron of Darkness. The narrators include Ben Fisher (Materials), and Phil Lunn (Mathematics), who use colourful crocodile heads to act as wires to connect circuits.

Clem Chung finds a way to defeat the Baron of Darkness with crocodile clips in Imperial College's production of 'I'm Me and I Can'

Students involved in the dramatic society at IC decided to embrace the cross-over between science and arts three years ago.

Their production first previewed at IC Union Concert Hall to primary school children from Kensington and surrounding boroughs before moving to Edinburgh's Hill Street Theatre in August.

Artistic director Kat Fishwick who studied chemistry explained: "There's not a lot of good science theatre out there - companies tend to either ruin the theatre or ruin the science.

"Our company has fixed this problem by providing very good science and theatre at the same time. Science can be communicated like anything else, it fuels the imagination as a source of excitement and wonder. It is just the stuff for gripping theatre."

The ex-Imperial College students who helped create the company include Ben Mars (Physics), now studying animation, who was responsible for the concept and set design and Brian Tucker (Computing), now a writer of software for Flying Pig lighting, who built the set. Additionally, Pilar Orti (Biology), general manager at the Forbidden Theatre Company, was consultant on story and acting.

Children are also invited to take part in a workshop full of games, including building a giant circuit using their own bodies.

"We wanted them to take from the show what they do in the classroom, ask what colour wires are and how they connect" adds Kat.

"They learn a complete circuit must not have a gap and how switches work. It's great to hear those who don't often get to the theatre, shout things out and participate."

The show hopes to run professionally in Telford and will return to College once a year. It is also being considered for the BA 2000 "Creating Sparks" event.

***(c) Imperial College 1999. This article originally appeared in IC Reporter, the staff newspaper of Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. Please contact the editor (Email: icreporter@imperial.ac.uk, Telephone: +44 20 7594 6697) for permission to re-use any or all parts of this article. ***