Theatre project leads to more reporting of crime

Karen MacDonald (left) from Crimestoppers and Krystal Keely from Unique Voice

A children's theatre project has led to increases in reports of crime, according to the Crimestoppers charity.

The project has been running for 13 years, and sees children performing a show to their parents and carers as a way of encouraging both age groups to think about how they would respond if they saw suspicious or threatening behaviour.

Children from three primary schools in Plymouth spent six weeks preparing for the final performance of 'What would you do?' by taking part in classroom workshops which organisers said were sometimes "life changing".

Crimestoppers said it had seen increased reports of crime in areas where the project has operated.

'What would you do?' is a theatre show organised for Crimestoppers by Unique Voice

Krystal Keely, director of the creative social enterprise company Unique Voice said community cohesion had been a big theme this year, with children wanting to talk about the ways their neighbourhoods were becoming more diverse.

"Just watching this young person have this lightbulb moment of actually not only is it is it really fun to welcome new people, but it’s interesting, and I’ve learnt something new about a different culture that I knew nothing about" Ms Keely said.

"Moments like that where if you were in a traditional classroom just having a discussion you wouldn’t have that kind of breakthrough and I guess that’s the power of creativity" she added.

Nine-year-old Zach from High Street Primary Academy in Plymouth explained the way the theatre show tried to tackle hate crime.

"You'll see something about 'blue' which is a T-shirt on a stick and it’s being attacked and the reason no one is wearing it is because we want them to think it could be anyone."

"I hope they’ll think that racism and hate crime isn’t good" he said.

Sophia, 10, from Hyde Park Primary she had learned more about the reasons behind hate crime, "such as religion, where they’re from, their skin colour, what they look like and more" she said.

'Innovative'

Karen MacDonald, regional manager for Crimestoppers in the South West, said the project had been running for 13 years and was particularly powerful because public meetings about crime often didn’t draw big crowds, but everyone wanted to see their children perform.

"This is a really innovative way of reaching into hard to reach parts of our communities with our Crimestoppers message which is about speaking up and staying safe with 100% guarantee of anonymity", she said.

She said they knew it worked because of the increase in reports Crimestoppers received from areas they had been working in.

Dan, 10, from Riverside Community Primary in Plymouth said he hoped the performance would help people "understand what they needed to do" if they saw crime.