92
93
THE ALLEYNIAN 709
DRAMA & DANCE
GCSE DRAMA DARK TALES
In Saint Octavia’s Secrets , the members of the group were inspired to further research an image of a deserted hospital building, which led them to conjure a polemical piece about incarcerated children, often orphans, with mental health issues, who are branded ‘lunatics’ and ‘congenital idiots’. The ensemble conjured the troubled inner state of these children through imagined realistic interaction, as well as choreographed physical expression to move and unsettle us. They also created the brutal physicians through the lens of the children, offering the opportunity for darkly comic caricature. This piece had the specific intent to unnerve and provoke, reminding us of ongoing mental health issues in society today, with a sequence of direct address offering startling facts about treatment in the past and present. This was a powerful piece from Tai Barrett-Hay, Sonny Birrane, Matteo Dembinski, Oscar Howley, George Loynes and Shay Patel. The evening concluded with Disappeared . This group plundered many of the familiar Gothic tropes to tell the story of a group of friends who encounter an old decaying mansion in the forest which seems to be ‘alive’. Walter is drawn in and, realising he has disappeared, the others enter too, in hot pursuit. Once inside, the ensemble become absorbed into the rhythm of the house, unwitting accomplices, as Walter falls more and more under the house’s spell, which gradually saps his life and will. Inspired in part by seeing the production of The Woman in Black , with its capacity to activate the suggestive power of the imagination, the actors wanted not only to devise truthful on-centre characters, but also to explore physical theatre techniques to create the surreal atmosphere of the house and its ability to ‘infect’. Plaudits aplenty should go to Freddie Greenwood, Rishi Gunaratnam, Sam Izbicki, Cameron Lane, Max Meyohas and Niccoló Robertson for disarming us and creating real chill despite the Indian Summer afternoon.
After six months’ delay due to lockdown, our debut GCSE cohort finally staged their devised dramas in the autumn of 2020. It was great to be able to stage live work again, albeit with a socially distanced year-group-bubble audience. Fuelled by a variety of stimuli, including reportage of missing persons, images of haunted and abandoned places and Edgar Allan Poe’s short story ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, all four groups conjured highly original and inventive pieces, plundering a variety of Gothic tropes to activate the suggestive power of the imagination. Their skilful use of dramatic realism and physical theatre as well as their presentation of verbatim accounts and their use of direct address was highly impressive. In Children of War , pupils were inspired to explore the stories of missing children. This led to further research into the journeys of migrant and displaced children travelling across continents and caught up in violence as soldiers in corrupt and failed states. We witnessed some great cameos and provocative storytelling as they deftly multi-roled between playing children and embodying young teens, as well as portraying the aggressors and cruel oppressors. Bravo to Arjan Chawla, Dylan Chawner, Max Constantinou, Eliot Edwards, Alex Eskandari and Eddie Irving for their thought-provoking ensemble playing. Missing told the story of a lost child, with an unnerving suspenseful plot twist to unsettle and intrigue, while we were all implicated and grilled as the investigation unravelled, with direct audience address and great use of the frames to morph locations. Sasha Berezov, Johnny Millis, Oscar Pelly and James Storey gave great performances on the day, with a ‘Covid cameo’ from Daniel Bollen as a fitting on-screen coda.
A small audience was thrilled by the Year 11 GCSE drama students’ invitation to be intrigued, unnerved and afraid, says Kathryn Norton-Smith
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online