PERFORMING Arts students are aiming to highlight the suffering war brings to children through a powerful piece of theatre.

Hereford College of Arts students are due to perform their piece on child refugees to a sold out crowd at Hay Festival this weekend.

The students have collaborated with local children’s author Nicola Davies and Herefordshire’s innovative Open Sky Theatre Company to produce the piece.

Based on ‘The Day the War Came’ poem by Nicola, the play aims to show how war affects the lives of ordinary people all over the world, the play has been written in an accessible style for anyone over the age of nine.

Nicola was moved to action when the government withdrew its pledge to take in 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees to the UK. She had recently been told the story of a refugee child being turned away from a school because there weren’t enough chairs.

‘3000 Chairs’ is an uplifting and immersive show about a refugee child and the extraordinary power of kindness.

Nicola said: “The instigation for the story is that I feel everything related to war is set in the adult world - adults create war and adults report on war, and so on. Children are voiceless. Whilst parents always try to make it alright, sometimes they can’t and that’s where this story starts."

Performance Arts course leader Gillian Hipp added: “We were keen to portray this as a story of something that could happen to anyone, anywhere.

"Whilst it’s a very challenging subject it has a hopeful resolution. Children see things in a very moral, black and white sort of way, which is why the piece ends as it does. Children simply want to help, they must help and they must act.”

3000 Chairs takes place at the Hay Festival on Sunday and next Wednesday May 31. Tickets for the event sold out within just a few days of their release.