Our third theatre summer camp was in 2015 in Bran, Romania. Unlike the first two years which used abridged Shakespeare texts to explore important social and political ideas, Nico Vaccari and Fragen Theatre Company's Roland Reynolds coordinated a group of 11 - 17 year old students in devising, writing and performing their own production entitled ‘Why we do harm’.

As a piece of forum theatre, the students explored and answered a series of questions centred around why people harm others, themselves, animals or the environment. All based on real experience, what was finally created was a very honest and personal look at how young Romanians perceive the harm committed and encouraged in the society that they are growing up in today.

Bravely exploring corruption in the educational system, gendered violence, the mindless drilling for oil, illegal hunting for bears and the consequences of oppressive family environments, the students in ‘Why we do harm’ reached out to their audience and left them impacted by an overwhelming empathy and feeling of communication.

We were joined by visual artist Bianca Mann who ran daily sculpture workshops with the students, and organised an exhibition of their work at the end of the camp.