Beyond the Edge by Paul Symonloe

Beyond the Edge is described as ‘an optimistic school drama about climate change’. It follows the events after a bridge collapse on a road in rural Devon during a geography field trip. The play focuses on two teachers; the prickly Mr Mungo and the fiery Miss Fiel and their charges. The students are feisty Dulcie who is continually pursued by the over-confident Jag, Jimmy who is troubled by a recent bereavement, and Myra who feels lost without the information she needs about her birth family.

The play begins as the characters are stranded with limited supplies and no phone reception. The teachers set about reassuring the students that help is on the way.

We then see the development of each character as Mr Mungo reveals his feelings about his failed marriage, Myra discloses how lost she feels without knowing her background and Jimmy divulges that his difficulties with their predicament stem from his father drowning in the same river that has collapsed the bridge.

Meanwhile, Jag continues to pursue Dulcie in a stereotypically oafish, teenage way until she reveals that she might like him if he was himself. All of this action is underpinned by the theme of climate change, which Miss Fiel strongly believes is the reason for the extreme weather conditions that have caused their situation. Although Mr Mungo is not a denier, he is, at first, unwilling to accept that he could be part of a solution. As the play comes to an end and rescue is on the way, Miss Fiel reveals that she is actually Myra's birth mother who had been forced as a teenager to give up her baby.

This play raises many issues that secondary students can relate to, and as a performance I feel my students would be able to identify with the characters and the themes. For study, there are a lot of duologues in the play that would lend themselves to exploration at Key Stage 3 and 4, as well as opportunities for off text work based on the characters and themes.

The conclusion is far-fetched, but the optimism of the suggestion that we can all do something to help with climate change is clear.

offthewallplays.com