“A brilliantly funny play, perfect for teenagers” by the Onatti Theatre Company. 

We couldn’t resist bringing some fun and excitement to our Spanish students. And what better than a play, fifty minutes long, and all in Spanish!

En El Campamento is a play for students who are learning Spanish and have completed at least one year of Spanish at secondary level. So, it was perfect for our Year 9, 10 and 11 students.

En El Campamento is an entertaining story which has toured extensively round the country. The story goes like this:

Two friends go on a camping trip. After a train and taxi ride, they arrive at the campsite and realise it is not exactly what they were expecting and they are totally unprepared. No mobile reception and no food turn friendship into friction!

We wanted to use Onatti Productions to enrich our students’ language learning experience because this play as well as entertaining is performed by two native Spanish actors. The spoken Spanish was delivered slowly and clearly. We wanted our students to be able to follow the story, sustain their enjoyment and above all, boost their confidence. 

The plot highlighted many similarities to our students' life, but in a humorous and exaggerated manner, making them relatable and increasing their enjoyment by empathising with the characters and storylines. 

It is important when staging a play in Spanish to pay careful attention to the written script and the delivery of the dialogue. This play helped develop our students' skills in 'applying the language they already know' so they could follow the story easily.

We know that new language should always be surrounded by familiar vocabulary and phrases to indirectly expose them to unfamiliar words as well.

The play was accompanied with worksheets, which contain a synopsis of the play, some extracts from the written script and some useful words and phrases.

It was a great success, with almost 100 students participating and benefitting from this unique experience. Thank you Onatti for coming!

Students’ Comments

"I really liked the play, there were 2 very good actors with very good Spanish that was spoken in a slow and understandable way. The story line was engaging and detailed making it easy to watch the play. I liked the way they interacted with the audience and used a lot of vocabulary that we have learnt."
-Millie 

"I really enjoyed the play. I liked that they used words and phrases we had learnt so could understand, and also some that were new."
-Orla 

"I really enjoyed the play, it was very lively, interactive and fun! It gave some perspective on how fast people who speak fluent Spanish speak and how much we can all understand of the language. 

The actor and actress were very funny and extremely talented. 
Thank you so much for a lovely lunch time."
-Amaia