The Alleynian 703 2015

Pictured : Nick Williams (Year 8) in Spenser’s The Good, the Bad, and the Cute and the Cuddly (top), Josh Theaker (Year 7), Alex Whitwell (Year 7) and Jay Connor (Year 7) operating an ‘emotion puppet’ in Sidney’s Puppet on a String (middle) and Abseylom Beniyam (Year 7) in Drake’s Rama and Sita (bottom).

Lower School House Drama

Helen Adie, adjudicator

T his year’s competition was highly energetic and enjoyable. Eight performances with a common theme of puppetry running through them gave rise to very diverse interpretations from the young directors. The whole event revelled in the collaborative nature of theatre, both on stage and behind the scenes. The evening kicked off atmospherically with Drake House’s Rama and Sita , with a strong narrator in Spike McGrath, excellent use of music and visual richness, an expressive Sita played by Abseylom Beniyam, and charming shadow puppets. Marlowe followed with an ambitious reworking of Pinocchio , with effective schoolroom scenes and notable performances by the bewigged, dynamic Jack Probert and the open-mouthed live puppet, William Brilliant. Spenser grabbed hold of the audience quite literally with the marvelously named The Good, The Bad and the Cute and Cuddly , offering a riot of heels and more wigs. Sterling narration from Darshy Whittington-Rao and Nick Williams helped fuse the ‘psycho’ puppets, spoilt children and EastEnders elements in the narrative, and Josh Billington gave a stylish performance as the increasingly crazed Ash. Howard offered a version of The Twits to rival the West End, with Isaac Gleave presenting an actor’s manual of gestures and comic turns. This was a smaller cast and they made a virtue of it, telling the tale simply and clearly. After the break, Johnson enchanted us with Hercules young and old (Louis Rudnicki and Ben Duggan respectively). Excellent staging abounded, like the crow’s death, and ingenuity when one of the three golden apples was strangely absent. Eric Watson’s King made the most of the moment, sharing a knowing look with the audience, entirely in character. The script was extremely clever too, written by Finn Raben-Christensen and Henry Collins.

Very strong writing was in evidence again from Joe Atkinson in Sidney’s Puppet on a String . This was a stunning piece fluidly staged, with a large, focused cast and wonderful ‘emotion puppets’ operated sensitively by Alex Whitwell, Jay Connor and Josh Theaker. Grenville came next, with a witty idea in The Great Political Bake- off – a lively, irreverent and character-based piece, with Henry Bichard giving an amusing performance as Nigel. Raleigh’s Jabberwocky brought the evening to a dramatic close with great music and lighting, torches, heart beats, smoke, bloody hands and chanting – a real ensemble piece rounding off a fantastic evening of theatre. Bravo to Fred Robb for his theatrically ambitious production.

114

Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs