These took place in the studio and theatre of The Cripps on Wednesday and Thursday 25th and 26th April.
The three performances were strikingly different but all equally impacted on the audience albeit in varying ways. All three had elements of pain but this was basically the only similarity and how this was demonstrated also varied. There were some outstanding performances and all pupils were determined to perform at the highest level they could. The contrasting pieces provided moments of intense violence, tension and hilarious comedy from the disturbing uber-violence of "A Clockwork Orange" through to the psychological intensity of the already dysfunctional family unravelling out of control in "That Face" and culminating in a surreal and Monty-Pythonesque version of "Waiting for Godot". The actors were committed to their roles as well as the differing styles and communicated the depth of emotion and relationships well. They totally captivated the audience and everyone went home happy especially as this year I programmed the comedy at the end!
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'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess
Performed in the Studio
Max Becker, Fezan Butt, Philip Glover, Jono Magee Joseph Rush, Jordan Stubbs Emma Taylor
The story follows four years in the life of fourteen year old Alex. His main pleasures in life are classical music (in our case Barber and particularly Adagio for Strings), sex of all kinds, and random acts of extreme violence ('ultraviolence' in Alex's idiom). He tells his story in a teenage slang called 'Nadsat', which mixes Russian with English slang. Alex is caught and "rehabilitated" using aversion therapy which renders him incapable of violence (even in self-defence). The moral question relates to freedom of choice. He does not choose to be good and therefore his "goodness" is as artificial as the clockwork orange of the title; choice being one of the things that makes us human. |
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The play was set in modern times with a soundtrack to match and all actors, except Joe playing Alex, multi-rolled - having at least a couple of main contrasting characters and Emma played all the female characters. It is Alex' story so it was important that the audience identify with him as a believable character (usually reacting negatively to his actions). The piece was fast paced, energetic and violent with the characters seen through the eyes of Alex so they were often exaggerated and biased. The actors were totally committed to the variations in emotional temperature of the piece, creating distinct characterisations and ensuring the flow of the piece from start to finish through altering the tempo and rhythm of each scene.
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'That Face' by Polly Stenham
Performed on the stage
James Botterill, Robyn Dickin, Kurran Koshal, Amelia Knaggs and Tyla Percival-Smith
This is the story of a family, already torn apart disintegrating into pieces. Mia, with feelings of abandonment, is at boarding school and teams up with a rather nasty piece of work, Izzy, to conduct initiation ceremonies on young girls which are nothing short of torture. She adds into this lethal cocktail her mum's prescription drugs and all hell breaks loose. Martha drunkenly answers the phone to the school and swiftly puts it down so Hugh, Mia's father is summoned from Hong Kong. Henry, the son has dropped out of school and spends all of is time looking after his alcoholic mother, often participating in these drunken sessions and the suggested inappropriate behaviour. Martha controls their lives. |
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The play looked at the complex relationships of all five characters but particularly the four family members. The actors worked on their characters using Stanislavki's methodology to ensure believability and one rehearsal in particular where they hot seated each other for an hour was particularly helpful in establishing their back story and also how they felt about each other and why. As a result it had a much higher impact and was hard-hitting, intense and painful showing children destroyed by the breaking up of their parents and the adults' resulting behaviour. They, in effect, became parents to their parents. The piece did have comedy but this was often a way to draw the audience in, only to have the rug swept from under them. It is easy to laugh at the antics of the drunk until you see the consequences that behaviour has on other, especially children. This juxtaposition made the piece even more harrowing in the climactic moments. It is a difficult play to pull off and the actors did well to convey such complex ideas and characters.
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'Waiting for Godot' by Samuel Beckett
Performed in the studio
Ian Bastos, Casey Roberts, Connor Spencer and Joseph Thompson
What is this play about? Somebody once said "And it came to pass, nothing came to pass." It has two central characters, Vladimir and Estragon who, dressed like tramps are waiting at the roadside for Godot who never comes - Pozzo a sadistic showman, his servant/human horse and a boy do. It is an absurdist play, written at a time, just after the war when some playwrights were highlighting the purposelessness and cyclical nature of life. The sequence of events perhaps is not as important for a director as the way they put ideas across. In our case we went for comedy - for a double act reminiscent of Laurel and Hardy, Morecombe and Wise and aspects of the old men, particularly Compo, from Last of the Summer Wine with a dollop of Steptoe and Son thrown in. There was a feel of Monty Python/Mighty Boosh as things happened without reason -they just did and they were funny! Pozzo was played as a camp unbalanced vicious schizophrenic talking to himself and gliding round the stage and Lucky's physicality was extreme and his never-ending monologue impressive. The two central characters oozed comedy and the bond between them whether bickering, teasing or supporting each other was evident throughout. It was hilarious and ended the night on a real high.
The Year 12 pupils have worked hard to produce these examination performances. The concept for each piece is mine as the director but the pupils are responsible for accepting this and working with this, working with myself and other actors as part of a company taking direction and then building on this as an individual (marked on voice, physicality, characterisation and communication). The plays vary in style and require slightly different skills but in all the students embodied their characters to communicate their message. Some of the plays were funny and some harrowing (some were both) but all were thought provoking and performed to a high standard.
To all of those who came along and supported these young actors I am sure you will appreciate the effort that went into the pieces and agree how talented they are and how effective they were in communicating their intentions to the audience. Thank you for your support. Thanks to Ali Warcaba-Wood (especially his technical input in "Clockwork" where there were 48 music/sound cues as well as lighting and projections! Not so easy when you only get to practice on the day!) and Phil Cave for their technical support.
This group also produced a set of monologues and duologues earlier this year chosen from the work of two playwrights often seen as very controversial and thought provoking; Philip Ridley and Sarah Kane. The monologues are required to last two minutes and the duologues five, with the pupils being responsible for creating their interpretation and then successfully performing this. They are awarded marks for their vocal skills, movement skills, characterisation (interpretation and understanding) and a written performance concept and annotated script previously sent to the examiner which identifies the context of the play, the place of the monologue/duologue within it and gives justification to their interpretation.
The plays chosen were all set in the modern era and though the protagonists all had psychological issues and often difficult lives there were stark contrasts in approaches, interpretation and realisation of these characters. This was particularly noticeable where students were playing the same character but had, justifiably, through research and rehearsal decided on a completely different portrayal, highlighting how important the actor and director are in interpreting the playwright and bringing a play from page to stage. |
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It was an exciting and enjoyable evening, with lots of nerves but also strong performances. I was impressed with the way the candidates conducted themselves throughout the evening and how they supported each other and tidied up without any fuss (again after the plays last week they get the award for the fastest and most effective tidy up).
Last words and a big thanks to the pupils - it is nights like last week that are so rewarding as a teacher. I was so proud of each of you. It was an absolute pleasure to be a part of this journey watching you rise to the challenges given you. I have learnt a lot about you and you have learnt a lot about each other, yourselves, Drama and probably me! You have shown commitment and responsibility and a real team spirit especially in your dedication to rehearsals during the holidays, after school and weekends. I hope that the hard work and effort is rewarded accordingly in the summer but no matter what happens you succeeded in fulfilling the brief - you brought to life my ideas and the end result matched my initial vision and, in some cases, surpassed it. You engaged and entertained an audience of all ages and from all walks of life, sustaining a high level of impact throughout, forcing them to think and feel about things we sometimes prefer to ignore. You all demonstrated the power of theatre.
Remember the feeling as you finished your pieces - it was amazing to feel that high- nothing can take that away. I look forward to seeing what other delights you can create in your devised performances in Year 13 - so much talent and so much creative potential.
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