No programme or cast list was made available to the audience (as far I could tell) at the performance I attended, though I was able to establish the cast of six are all students from St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College, in Ladbroke Grove, west London, and they got to the Fringe thanks to financial assistance from the Keep It Fringe fund, which for Fringe 2025 provided 180 recipients with bursaries of £2,500. The play is partly set in 2013 and partly in 2023, and does that rather irritating but trendy thing of bouncing between the decades. For these young characters, it’s a case of school uniforms on for when they are in Year Ten, and off for when they are not. On. Off. On. Off. You get the idea.
It’s also one of those plays where everybody is getting along just fine, and everything’s more or less tickety-boo, before a critical incident comes along and has a substantial and permanent impact on all of the characters. Here, the classmates are preparing for a coach trip to that unspecified place called Up North, but when the teacher leading the expedition does a headcount, it is well short of the thirty-six pupils on her list. Once a year thereafter, the remaining classmates gather as an act of remembrance and, it seems, a general catch-up. As time goes on, however, their interests and career paths diverge – some have even moved out of the capital altogether – and there are questions about whether it is appropriate to continue doing something some of them no longer enjoy. Is that what their friend who died too young would have wanted? And would she have wanted an annual ‘happy birthday in heaven’ party in the first place?
A briskly paced production that reflects the energy and vibrancy of youth, the play captures the myriad frustrations of the younger generation with care and sensitivity. It is a deeply personal story, and a very focused one at that, eschewing the need to pepper the narrative with references to wider events in either 2013 or 2023. This, I thought, was incredibly refreshing – there’s no mention, for instance, of That Pandemic, not because the characters weren’t cocooned at home as we all were, but because there isn’t a need to reference it in the story that unfolds. An engaging coming of age play that subtly challenges mainstream media’s portrayal of youngsters as lacking in ambition and strength of character.
Written by Kit Withington and brought to life by talented West London drama students, As We Face The Sun is a moving and uplifting exploration of friendship and the passage of time. The story follows a group of classmates who, after the tragic loss of a friend, hold an annual party in her honour. As they transition from teenagers into adulthood, the gatherings become a reflection of shared memories and growth. The narrative reminds us of why we hold onto things and how we might start to let go.
Limelight Theatre Group presents
AS WE FACE THE SUN
theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall at the Edinburgh Fringe
18 to 23 August 2025
