Drama students for the Isle of Man are set to perform at the world’s largest arts and culture festival in the world later this month.

Local theatre production company Parker and Snell are to take a cast of 13 young actors, aged between 14 and 18, to the Edinburgh Fringe festival in Scotland to perform a version of ’The Edelweiss Pirates’, written by Ayub Khan Din.

The play tells the story of a group of teenagers who grew up in wartime Germany, and who railed against Nazi politics, fought the Hitler Youth, and who helped resistance groups, risking imprisonment and death.

There will be a performance of the play in the Ballakermeen Studio theatre, held on Friday, August 11 as a warm up before they travel to Edinburgh.

Director Colin Snell said the subject matter for the play makes for a gripping and original play, and one that the students fully engaged with.

’If you think of the period in Nazi Germany at the time you automatically think of the Hitler Youth,’ said Colin.

’But there was certainly a growing number of young people who resisted such an organisation and Ayub Khan Din’s re-telling makes for a compelling theatrical experience which is what the Fringe is about.’

The experience of travelling to the performing arts festival, the largest of its kind in the world, is one that he feels will benefit the young actors greatly.

’For the company, this will be their first visit to the Edinburgh Fringe, the world’s largest Arts Festival,’ he said.

’It is an exciting, and humbling, experience to be part of an exciting and vibrant week which will, undoubtedly, be memorable for the actors.

’Over three thousand groups perform at the Fringe every year over a period of three weeks or so, so you can imagine the competition for audiences! But it is all part of the experience.’

The trip, which is estimated to cost in the region of £10,000, is being funded by the Isle of Man Arts Council, Cowley Groves, Nedbank, Shoprite, and via the Parker and Snell gofundme page.

Tickets for the Ballakermeen show, which begins at 7.30pm, are priced at £12, and £10 concessions, and are available from thestudiotheatre.im.