A recent play called The Lion and the Unicorn by Tawona Sitholé, Lecturer in Creative Practice Education, UNESCO Chair for Refugee Integration through Education Languages and the Arts, was held at Glasgow University in early April. This short post tells of what inspired it.
The popular stone stairwell next to the chapel on the main campus, is iconic. A popular tradition is that of students rubbing the unicorn as a good luck charm before exams. It is also a source of fascination for visitors and tourists to the campus. Having been physically moved from the old site in the east end to the current location in the west end of the city. This east-west move represents expansion of the university, and yet also now represents disparity in quality of life and life expectancy between these areas.
For some it represents the often-uneasy relationship between Scotland (represented by the unicorn) and England (represented by the lion). In the year commemorating 575 years of the university this iconic emblem is an inspiration for a theatre play that acknowledges a university built on hard work and curiosity yet also embroiled in some dark experiences such as the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Made through devising as a work in progress, the play is a work of searching to see how the university values can be brought to life by a group of voluntary participants to co-create something fun, light-hearted and hopefully meaningful. This play is made of the generosity of all involved, and is a celebration of that spirit of collective thinking, making and living.