Pandora Unleashed

Extract of Pandora Unleashed – Filmed at Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton.

WHAT IS PANDORA UNLEASHED?

PANDORA UNLEASHED was a project aimed at creating, developing, and producing a new play inspired by Greek myths, informed by seed input from secondary school pupils. It took a well-known story from the ancient world and re-imagined them, giving voice and agency to a character who is often forgotten or marginalised. The project developed a form of participant-led theatre, where the audience guided the performance.

In school workshops, we explored the character of Pandora, who infamously opened a ‘box’ that let evil into the world. However, there is more to this story than the one you have heard before.

This was a collaboration between myself and playwright Matthew Gabrielli. PANDORA UNLEASHED ran from May to July 2019 and was first performed in July 2019, with Pandora played by Charis McRoberts.

This project was kindly supported by the University of Birmingham Public Engagement with Research Fund. We are currently in the process of developing the next stage of this project, to make an anthology of mythic characters. If you work in an education setting or with young people and would like to know more about how you could get involved, please get in touch via my contact page.