Acting Debut for 12-Year-Old Amelia in Creative Electric Play About the Loneliness of Army Children

Loneliness and social dislocation are the price some children pay for life in a military family – due to frequent moves and relocations.

This makes it difficult to settle into education, establish friendships or even know where to call home.

Dandelion by Creative Electric addresses these issues in a work of physical theatre created for this year’s Army@TheFringe.

Its creator, Heather Marshall, interviewed Army families around Edinburgh and elsewhere in the UK to gather their experiences.

Her research delved into issues like access to schooling and education, and the many different attitudes of young people towards their parents’ career – which can range from wanting to go into the forces themselves to complete opposition to the Army.

The result is a two-hander set in a garden utopia in the middle of a city, a place to escape from digital overload, which follows the story of Dandelion and her older sister Lisa.

The play is particularly significant for the eponymous Dandelion, as it is 12-year-old Edinburgh schoolgirl Amelia Tuck’s  professional acting debut.

Creative Electric originally became involved with Army@TheFringe in 2018 as an act of protest against the military.

Since then they have been invited to be involved in a series of Army projects that have asked serious questions about issues including the role and experience of LGBTQI people in the Army.