Towards the end of the Summer Term our PA Hall was transformed into the village of Cottingley in 1917 under the backdrop of World War 1. The play The Light Burns Blue is based on the true story of two young girls in a quiet Yorkshire village who took photographs of the fairies living at the bottom of their garden, and the whole world sat up and took notice. This resulted in Sherlock Holmes creator and spiritualist, Arthur Conan Doyle, becoming convinced that they were right to believe in fairies.

The story of the Cottingley Fairies provides a moving account of what happens when the public identifies with a story, and it takes on a life of its own. This is a story based on fascinating characters who find themselves catapulted to fame at a time when the world was an uncertain place, and when society needed something extraordinary to believe in. Elsie and her cousin, Frances, were able to provide this.

The cast of Year 8 and 9 pupils created beautifully developed characters, displaying a range of emotions and performances full of feeling. The company provided the audience with a delightful, humorous but, overall, emotional piece of theatre and had an innate awareness of the complex ideas shown in this play. We were hugely proud of the care and attention that they gave to this seemingly simple story, which in actuality has an importance and relevance to today's world. 

This play was sprinkled with fairy dust by the wonderful creative team of Nick Rye, whose original music beautifully illustrated the emotion and drama of the piece, Lisa Lee, whose striking physical theatre moments communicated so wonderfully the trauma of war and the affectation of the era, Fi Punter, who worked miracles with the Year 9 boys' haunting rendition of a World War 1 poem and of course our Head of Drama Sam Honey whose imaginative and wonderful direction brought the whole thing to life! 

Please click the link below to see the photos taken by Serena Shelton.

https://www.dukeofkentschool.org.uk/gallery/?pid=3&gcatid=2&albumid=104