GSC Knife Crime Awareness Campaign Reaches 2,000 Students

Published on: 20 Feb, 2026
Updated on: 20 Feb, 2026

By Isabelle Trubshaw

As Guildford Shakespeare Company celebrates their 20th birthday, the milestone offers an opportunity to spotlight its Knife Crime awareness programme, Put Up Your Swords, which continues to deliver significant impact across the community.

There is particular poignancy because of the proximity of GSC’s office, on the edge of Stoke Park, to the fatal stabbing of 15-year-old Luis Guembes in Peacock Wood.

GSC’s Creative Learning Producer, Kerrie Driscoll said: “The very recent, and tragically fatal, incident in Stoke Park only strengthens our resolve to do whatever we can for young people and our community around this subject.

Luis Guembes

“It reinforces why this work matters, and although these may be isolated incidents in our region, they are a fact and anything GSC can do to help promote change is vital.”

Since its launch in 2024, the programme has grown from four participant schools to delivering an eight-week outreach programme for year nine pupils across six Surrey schools, reaching over 2,000 students in the area.

Put Up Your Swords – School project

A GSC spokesperson said: “GSC’s continued growth over 20 years is closely linked to its ability to embed itself meaningfully within its local community. Programmes such as Put Up Your Swords demonstrate how theatre can function not only as entertainment, but as social change.”

See: Romeo & Juliet Production to Raise Awareness of the Facts Around Knife Crime

Put Up Your Swords is taken from a line in Romeo & Juliet: “Part, fools! Put up your swords; you know not what you do,” spoken by Benvolio to break up a fight between the servants of the Montagues and Capulets.

The line became the theatrical framework for the initiative campaign, developed during GSC’s High Street production of Shakespeare’s play, after a stabbing in the local area prompted questions around the role of theatre in using storytelling as a form of education.

See: Teenager Arrested After Second Guildford Stabbing This Month

Delivered in partnership with the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey, the University of Surrey Crime Scene Room and Court of the Future, past projects have included drama workshops, professional stage combat sessions, talks from guest speakers with lived experience, and a simulated court case at the University of Surrey, where Romeo is put on trial.

Put Up Your Swords – Role play court case at the University of Surrey

Other initiatives have also included a special awareness forum at Guildford Cathedral in 2024, which involved talks, youth drama pieces, and performances by the University of Surrey.

Each project encourages active learning and participation while revealing the realities of knife crime and exploring safer alternatives.

GSC producer Kerrie Driscoll believes too many young people face life-changing consequences because they didn’t believe they had safer choices.

That’s why, she thinks, working hand-in-hand with partner organisations, schools, local authorities, and our wider community is vital. She said: “Together, we can provide the guidance and real alternatives that help young people step away from danger and reduce the devastating impact of knife-related violence.”

Independent evaluation has highlighted the project’s impact:

83 per cent of students understand that carrying a knife does not make them safer.
78 per cent of participants feel confident to make safer choices.
82 per cent of students at Christ’s College express a willingness to report knife crime – increased from just 18 per cent.

One teacher said: “A student (who barely ever spoke to me) came and reported someone was carrying a knife and I’m convinced that this is only because of Put Up Your Swords.”

Put Up Your Swords – School performance

Despite the programme’s success, knife-crime remains a local and national concern following a recent fatal stabbing of a teenager on the 16th of January 2026 in Stoke Park.

Driscoll believes GSC is in a unique position as educators and storytellers to lead meaningful conversations alongside partners with lived experience, helping to raise that awareness and inspire that change.

She said: “Having worked with Mark Prince and Martin Cosser and witnessing the unimaginable pain of losing a child to such a senseless act, we hold the affected families in our deepest thoughts.”

Looking ahead to 2026, GSC hopes to expand its reach and long-term impact by working with 10 schools across the county and beyond, seeking dedicated project funding to sustain and grow this vital work.

The company also plans to apply for the Tilly award, which recognises problem-oriented projects that have achieved success in resolving issues faced by the police or the community, potentially giving the programme a national platform for long-term sustainability.