Drama is a wonderful medium to elicit stories from the community, to value these stories and indeed to present them to others. Last year a group of women under the Learning Age Project chose drama as their medium for continued learning. This has led to a body of work far beyond the group's imagination. Mainly hailing from the "top of the hill, Gobnascale", they called themselves "TOP WOMEN".

And so it was time for the group to present their own work. "De ye mind?" was the title of their first piece. The performance was made up of stories from these wonderful women: some were hilarious, but in contrast some were heartbreaking. The opening scene centered on a wake. As people gather at a wake stories tend to flow and many of us are taken back to times gone before.  “De ye mind the time?…..” is a phrase that we have often heard at a wake  and so it was a perfect vehicle to tell the stories from these women’s lives. The performance played to a packed house in the Millennium Forum studio and in the summer the group was asked to perform as part of the “Hooley on the Hill”  festival, again to a full house.

They also performed as part of Big Telly’s Spring Chickens show  on 3^rd October . Their piece, about a visit to Lourdes, was a more serious reflection amongst other scenes of hilarity throughout this huge performance and the group really enjoyed the challenge of performing on the main stage at the Millennium Forum.

With confidence built high, the group performed at the WEA AGM in October with a short piece that contrasted the differences of  the women's former formal educational experience with that experienced learning with the WEA. They have been invited to present this piece once again at The Learning Age Conference on 9th June this year. Two members will also present their work in June at the last leg of the EUBIA Project (EU Broadening People's Minds in Ageing).

And on 25th June, a year to the day of their first performance, the group will present a newly devised piece which explores women's experience of mental illness in the past. Using "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" as a basis to begin to develop  this subject ,the women have explored the reasons why many women were placed in mental health institutions, discovering that it had less to do with mental illness and more to do with state and church control for many.  TOP WOMEN will also support The Happy Go Luckies in their performance £100 to a Penny on 21st May at the Millennium Forum and there are plans for the two groups to come together and share in future drama workshops. So it is a case of watch this space, as the group continues to grow and develop in confidence and skills. Here in their own words, they comment on what this project means to them:

I have really enjoyed every minute of it. It has given me so much confidence in myself that I never had.

I thought I was a bit on the old side, but age doesn’t matter when you are having fun.

Well I really enjoy the drama.  I always get a laugh.  I have met loads of new friends.

I have been coming to drama for over a year. I almost walked out on the morning of our first performance I was so nervous but I knew I would regret it. I was so proud of my achievement that night and I have continued to perform since.

We have so much fun doing our drama.  It all thanks to the WEA, because if it was not for them I would not be here now.  I just love it.

Doing this drama course has shown me you can be any age to learn. The WEA has lots of courses available for the 50 plus age group and I hope to take up other courses in the future.