Theatre production drives home road safety message
A new play is to be performed nationwide to deliver a hard-hitting message to teenagers about the risks involved with drug-driving, sleep deprivation and peer pressure.
Pills, Thrills and Automobiles also reinforces how crucial it is to always to wear seatbelts in cars.
In addition to the powerful play, the production includes interactive sessions with the audience.
Performed by the Ape Theatre Company, the play is taken from real-life interviews and tells the true story of four 18-year-olds who, after a weekend at a music festival with both drug taking and sleep deprivation, crashed horrifically on the motorway in 1997. Two of the victims died; one at the scene of the incident, on the day before her 18th birthday, and one after being airlifted to hospital.
Andrew Mulquin, who co-wrote the play, said theatre entertainment was a new way of engaging an audience and helping to reinforce safety messages.
Essex police and crime commissioner Nick Alston, who attended a performance at Colchester County High School for Girls, said it reinforced an important message.
At least ten people each week are killed or seriously injured on Essex roads. Every case causes heartache for many people and it never gets any easier for our police officers to bang on doors and tell people that their loved ones have been involved in an accident, he said.
Visit www.apetheatrecompany.co.uk/pills.htm