By Isle of Wight Observer
Wartime stories from Islanders, who lived through WWII, are to be brought to life on stage, after Carisbrooke Castle Museum secured £40,000 in funding.
The museum has received the money through an Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant, as part of the ‘Unlocking Collections’ fund, which aims to increase public engagement with museum collections.
Over the next year, the funding will allow the museum to share stories from its Island Voices oral history archive, through contemporary theatre.
During the 80th anniversary of VE Day in 2025, the museum interviewed 20 Islanders about their childhood memories of the Second World War, adding to its existing collection of local wartime oral histories.
The stories will now be transformed into a live verbatim theatre performanc,e created with young people.
Lisa Kerley, project manager at Carisbrooke Castle Museum, said: “For an audience to hear the voices of our interviewees on stage, their words spoken by young people, is just so exciting.
“We want to make our museum and collections accessible, visible, and relevant, and we hope that this project does exactly that.”
Pupils from the Island Free School will take part in a year-long drama and history enrichment programme, while other young Islanders will be involved through specialist verbatim theatre workshops.