Bubblegum and Bling.

 

A play about teenage relationships created by cast, writing supported by Esther Wilson.

Pre-show worksheet for schools

Brief synopsis of the play:

Characters :

The story:

  Ben and Kelly meet in an internet café at the beginning of the play. We learn that Kelly has recently moved to Liverpool from Ireland and is having difficulty making new friends. She helps Ben to set up his own ‘myspace’ page and, in working together here, they start to develop a friendship.

  Soon Kelly meets Ben’s cousin Tommo.  It becomes clear that the two boys used to be friends, but as they have grown older they have grown apart. Tommo and Kelly start to communicate through ‘myspace’ and pretty soon they start to have a relationship.

  As the play develops we realise that both Kelly and Ben are victims of bullying, at school, through ‘myspace’ and, in Ben’s case, by his older brother, Graham.

Things come to a head when Ben is invited to a non-existent party on Crosby beach. Kelly confronts her boyfriend Tommo and tells him to apologise to her friend for his cruel act, or she will finish the relationship.

Tommo finally stands up to the bullies and apologises to Ben in the school canteen and the relationship is resolved.

  At the end of the play Kelly confides to Ben that she and Tommo have had an accident with a split condom. Ben persuades Kelly to seek advice and offers to go with her to the Brook Advisory Centre.

  Key issues :

Pre-show activities:

  An open discussion about ‘myspace’ and the language used by young people to communicate through ‘myspace’.

  A discussion about the positive and negative aspects of ‘myspace’.   e.g. In the first scene we see Kelly communicating with her friends back in Ireland. It is clear that she misses them and that this is a useful tool through which she can keep in contact with her friends.

  In a later scene we hear Kelly say that her mum has been complaining that she is spending too much time on ‘myspace’ and is neglecting her work. This seems to be a common complaint, which raises the issue of how we use our free time responsibly.

  Finally we realise that Kelly is being bullied by a group of girls through her ‘myspace’ page. This raises the issue of bullying and the different ways people can experience being the victim of bullying.

Practical group exercise:

This is a short exercise, which requires minimum space. The aim of the exercise is to encourage young people to observe, examine and talk about how we are all unique and yet share many similarities.

  Ask the group to walk around the room in silence. Ask them to observe the other group members as they move in the space. Ask the group to organise themselves into smaller groups of people with the same hair colour. They should complete this exercise simply by observation and in total silence.

  This exercise can be forming groups with:

The second part of this exercise involves communicating with each other. By asking questions, small groups can be formed with:

  It is important throughout this exercise that it is fine to be different, often one person can be alone from the groups if for example they are the only one with their birthday in March, if they are the tallest etc.

This is a good exercise, which can introduce the idea of respecting each other’s differences and can serve as a good opener into debate about the nature of bullying.

Further worksheets on Bubblegum and Bling will be available on

www.hope-street.org/healthyarts from 9th February.