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THE ALLEYNIAN 709
DRAMA & DANCE
During the Lent lockdown, our Upper Sixth cohort immersed themselves in techniques associated with the theatre practitioner Stanislavski. His methodology delivers a scaffolding of technique which permits the actor to interrogate the inner life of a character. While writers give us a snapshot into the lives of characters, using a combination of given circumstances, emotional memory and imagination, the actor aims to make their performance as truthful and believable as possible. The students’ intent was to amuse, unnerve, move, chill, disarm and provoke with their staging of eclectic and brilliant writing from contemporary authors. After submission of self-tapes, there was the opportunity for live performance in March, before a final flourish with a showcase presentation in May, when this most talented of A-level groups gave us a masterclass of assured, mature performance work for one last time. Alfie Cook played the insecure and vulnerable adolescent Jim, from Enda Walsh’s Chatroom , who seeks companionship in anonymous online forums. Walsh’s play about manipulation and cyberbullying is structured through a series of small exchanges with different teenagers, and exposes the dangers of anonymity and disconnect in the digital ether. Here Jim is describing a poignant memory from his childhood, and Alfie broke our hearts in the role, with his recollection of standing there at the zoo, in his cowboy gear, overwhelmed with the dawning realisation that he had been left alone and that his dad ‘wasn’t coming back’. Lolly Whitney Low played Sam in Lucy Kirkwood’s sharp, funny NSFW , which satirises media attitudes to sexuality and exposes the frightening power dynamics and abuse of privacy in the cut- throat world of the media. The title NSFW – ‘Not Safe For Work’ – applies absolutely to the narrative as we follow 24-year-old naïve Sam becoming corrupted by warped moral values in his journey from grubby lads’ mag – Doghouse – to equally superficial women’s publication – Electra . In Lolly’s monologue Sam is in an interview with the formidable Miranda. Lolly brought real tender substance to this tricky and flawed character through Sam’s realisation that, ‘people together can change things … and stand up – and stop shit happening.’ His performance was utterly captivating. Nick Richardson-Waldin played the mentally damaged Michal, from Martin McDonagh’s The Pillow Man . Michal is being held on remand after killing two children. He is in thrall to his elder brother Katchurian, who is in the cell with him during his interrogation as he explains the barbaric murder in graphic detail. Katchurian is an excellent writer and Michal explains that he killed the kids because Katchurian’s stories ‘told him to’. Nick chose to tackle this highly dysfunctional psychopath and definitely managed to chill and unnerve us with his truthful, compelling performance. Josh Billington played the lovelorn Phil in Howard Korder’s sharply etched postmodern comedy of modern manners Boys’ Life , set in New York City in the 1980s where a group of ex- college mates, caught in a state of arrested development in a fast-changing world of sexual politics, struggle with the concept of the ‘new man’. Josh chose to interpret Phil as an Englishman
The students’ intent was to amuse, unnerve, move, chill, disarm and provoke with their staging of eclectic and brilliant writing from contemporary authors
A-LEVEL MONOLOGUES
in the city, adding a further layer to being out of kilter with the world around him, and in his chosen sequence the character is in Central Park having a heart-to-heart exchange with his college buddy Dom. Josh’s easy charm ensured that we all found Phil endearing, and sympathized with his frustrated musing about Phil’s lack of success in les affaires d’amour . This lighter tone ramped up further with Ella Hickson’s piece of contemporary realism Boys , set in a flat at the end of university life. The play spans the 24-hour period before four flatmates are going to be turfed out of their student lifestyle. Ben Potter brilliantly captured Timp in Hickson’s study of emotionally stunted young men fuelled by do-or-die hedonism. Timp is the character at the heart of the comedy who, although not at university with the other characters and in a dead-end job, is clinging onto the life of partying and freedom. He is having breakfast with his flatmates and explaining why there’s a girl in the shower. Ben played the scene for laughs, with some great physical comedy, a toaster and a jar of Nutella accompanying Timp’s recollection of his exploits leading to the one-night stand. The evening closed with Leo Milne’s performance of Baby from Jezz Butterworth’s Mojo . Baby is the troubled son of a gangland boss who owns a night club in seedy Soho in the 1950s. Baby is taunting the rock‘n’roll sensation Silver Johnny, who is tied up in the basement of his dad’s club. Abused by his father, Baby is a damaged and flawed character, hungry for a slice of the good life, which is fed by greed, amorality, overwhelming stupidity, and a steady diet of pills. Milne was electric in the role as he stalked the space, brandishing a cutlass with heart- in-the-mouth danger that kept us all on the edge of our seats.
Year 13 presented snapshots of the weird, wired, witty and wonderful, interpreting scripts by Jez Butterworth, Ella Hickson, Howard Korder, Lucy Kirkwood, Martin McDonagh and Enda Walsh, says Kathryn Norton-Smith
All these young actors inhabited their roles for totally believable effect, delivering performances of the highest dramatic order.
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