DRAMA
REVIEW
SLAPSTICK, KAFKA AND RAZZLE DAZZLE Upper School House Drama
Jonathan Guy Lewis Photographs by Marko Marsenic (Year 13)
W hat a talented bunch the Drama lot are. I left the theatre with an impression of high standards and huge enthusiasm, and I look forward to future productions with anticipation. Spenser kicked off the evening with a compelling version of Pinero’s The Magistrate . Farce, they say, is sped-up tragedy, and the cast of Alfie Davies, Hamish Lloyd-Barnes, Darrius Thompson and Django Pinter exuded confidence and panache, tightly executing nifty ensemble sequences with a nod to cinematic Keaton-esque slapstick. As director, Hamish employed a highly physical, chaotic style, which came into its own most notably in a police raid that made use of the trapdoor, balcony and the entire auditorium. Marlowe followed with a scene from The Arsonists by Max Frisch. A dark comedy with the topical theme that private and public morality cannot be separated, this again had very inventive work, from Marko Marsenic, Tom Downie, Huw Roberts, Harry Warren, Barney Mills and Zach Fox. After an intriguing start, the scene didn’t build in the way that Spenser’s had; however, I did appreciate Marko’s directorial decision to split the action of the scene into two versions that played out at the same time, surely heightening the extended metaphor about the weakness of personal ethics in the face of all-pervasive evil.
Sidney produced a scene from Family 2.0 by Walter Wykes, about a businessman who yearns for the green, green grass of someone else’s home. To play a sharp, punchy sketch requires precise delivery of lines and clear physical characterisations, and at times the piece felt as if would have benefitted from further polish. It featured strong performances, though, from Ed Reid as the husband who arrives at a new house bored with his old life and Patrick Hughes, who, misty-eyed when presented with flowers, was a very funny wife. (Great wig, Patrick.) Last up before the interval came Raleigh, with an intriguing adaptation of a few scenes from the 2014 American neo-noir crime thriller Nightcrawler . The protagonist is a thief who starts shooting live footage of accidents and crimes in LA, selling the content to local news channels as a stringer, while secretly sabotaging both crime scenes and other news reporters. I want to applaud the ambition of Jack Firman and Harry Hogg, who scattered vignettes of action around the stage to evoke a surreal and unsettling climate while the sinister protagonist Louis Bloom became more manipulative and voyeuristic. It was an interesting idea, well executed with a focused central performance of real depth from Nathan Emoike.
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