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DRAMA & DANCE
Robbed of performance experience for almost two years, they absolutely proved that what doesn’t break you makes you stronger
audience with laughs aplenty. Spenser then adapted Blackadder III , Sense and Senility , in full Georgian regalia. The joy with which the cast, led by Edward Cook, attacked the script was evident for all to see. Cook, Billy Morris and Hardy Hodges gave us plenty of foppish Regency flounce, while Sam Izbicki impressed as the all-knowing acerbic Blackadder. Finally, we saw Sidney’s action-packed excerpt from The 39 Steps , directed by Oscar Pelly. Some slick ensemble playing was in evidence here, as the well-drilled cast deftly transported us through the dazzling array of different characters and shifting locations. The evening was testimony to the resilience, good humour and energy of two year groups who were collaborating again after bubbling up in 2020. Robbed of performance experience for almost two years, they absolutely proved that what doesn’t break you makes you stronger. For the audience, seeing House Drama back all guns blazing was joyous.
Raleigh’s entry, a self-penned piece by Jesse Gyane, provided a hilarious start to the evening, with overblown comic characters parading their way through an imagined rehearsal process. Grenville then staged a short extract from James Graham’s ruthless, red-topped play Ink , with Sonny Birrane unsettlingly charismatic as the media mogul Murdoch, and Charlie Davies incisive as the then editor of The Sun , Larry Lamb. Howard produced A Matter of Who , a short vignette that featured memorable and compelling cameo performances, notably from Edmund Irving and the suitably overwrought Miles Camilleri. Jonson’s adaptation of Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist was a stand-out tour-de-force, with Gilbert Edwards playing Drugger, fully in control of language, characterisation and the audience. Mohau Jolobe-Pike played the conniving scoundrel Subtle with skill and flair: a fitting partner in this extraordinarily accomplished piece. After the interval we saw Marlowe’s adaptation of Quiz , again by the popular James Graham. With its garish suits and multi- roling across gender, this proved a real crowd-pleaser, with Will Lord, Niccolò Robertson and Harry Spicer excelling as game show hosts from the 1970s and ’80s, aptly capturing the required relentless energy and fawning smarm. The play explored the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire and its notorious fraudulent ‘Coughing Major’ episode. George Loynes directed the piece with an assured hand, with the moments of audience participation proving particularly effective. Flynn Laban then directed and acted in his own piece, A Classic Whodunnit , plundering many of the tropes associated with West End productions like The Play That Goes Wrong . The melodrama’s language and action successfully and comically parodied the Agatha Christie plays of the 1940s, and the cast approached it with a delightful sense of fun, providing the
Adjudicator Jason Flemyng wrote of the evening:
So tonight I watched 40 kids do what they love. Some were keener than others, and some who were not so keen might have had more natural talent than those who tried hard. But the point is, and as an actor of 40 years, I know: they have found their tribe, their people; they are allowed to be who they are, and they celebrate each other, as was obvious, when meaningless cups were given for this or that. The point is: they are together! Win or lose, to those who want to make it their life: get used to it, be strong, and remember that tonight – Tuesday 9 November – you were an actor.
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