Upper School House Drama
I t is more than a decade since Hailz Osborne, now Director of Drama at Eton College, last adjudicated Upper School House Drama. The competition used to be spread over two days with longer and more complicated plays, but times have moved on, and so have boys’ commitments, so we currently have one tighter, more sharply focussed evening. This year the boys produced some of their best work yet – there wasn’t a joker in the pack, and this makes life a good deal more difficult for the adjudicator. Hailz Osborne’s comments were beautifully judged as she ran through the ‘runners and riders’ for the prizes on offer. Raleigh started the evening with a largely self-penned script called Oblivious . Ed McNamara’s commitment to the project – writing, acting and directing – was highly praised. Following on from this was Jonson’s adaptation of the film script Analyze This . For cognoscenti of House Drama over the years, it would be something of a disappointment if Michael Godson hadn’t removed his trousers in search of comedy gold – he did, and he found laughs without a struggle. His confident, brazen performance won the audience over and ultimately won him the joint award of the Best Actor Cup with Joseph Taylor from Marlowe in the play that immediately followed Jonson’s entry. Marlowe’s The Birthday Party was an intense interrogation scene where we saw Joseph Taylor, George Chambers and Tom Hammond working as a unified ensemble terrifying the wits out of the main character. Joe inhabited the role of the reclusive Stanley Webber with heart-breaking poignancy. It was a complete contrast and foil to the work that had gone before. These plays were followed by a Berkoff-style treatment of Lucy Prebble’s play Enron . Hailz Osborne praised the adaptation and direction of this tightly worked piece, but warned of the dangers of synchronised movement when actors were slightly out of joint. Ollie Norton-Smith
was justly awarded the Best Director cup for his ambitious ensemble treatment of Prebble’s text. The second half began with the opening of Hamlet . The cast of Sidney created a suitably ghostly atmosphere with lanterns and swirling fog, but there was an element of improvisation regarding the lines, which was unfortunate in such a well-known extract. Kai Tay Ashcroft took the role of Horatio by the scruff of the neck and produced a confident and thoughtful interpretation. Posh by Laura Wade perhaps played to the public school stereotype and Hailz Osborne commented that she was delighted that the play, performed by Alleynians and judged by an Eton teacher, featured the imagined worst behaviour of Harrovians! Spenser’s production was full of the bravura one would expect from a cast that featured Jakob Hedberg and James Campbell- Warner, and the Drama department was delighted to award James the Max Hunter Cup for his tireless, generous and relentlessly good-humoured contribution to all things dramatic during his time at Dulwich. Next, a small cast directed by Jerome Reid and featuring a confident Humphrey Curtis as Richard Hannay ably performed Grenville’s extract from The 39 Steps . Drake’s Gizmo Love wrapped up the evening with a splendid two-hander featuring George Higgins and Zac Harvey-Wright. Deft and detailed performance work from the pair ensured that Drake, this year, won best House Play. Mention must be made of Oscar Maguire, whose skilful and tireless contribution to Sound was recognised with the award of the Sharpe Drama Bursary. The truth is that there were too many great performances and not enough cups to give out this year. The competition goes from strength to strength and this is not from a low starting point: this year’s competition marks 20 years since Chiwetel Ejiofor first won the Best Actor Cup – so we will view with interest the careers of all the prize winners.
MR PETER JOLLY
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