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Roald Dahl's 'Danny, the Champion of the World' is set in the 1950's and written from the perspective of a nine year old boy. Danny's mother died when he was four months old, leaving him to be brought up by his father. They live in an old and cosy gypsy caravan behind a petrol station where Danny's father works as a car mechanic.
The story explores their relationship when Danny discovers "the deepest, darkest secret" of his father's life: a love of poaching pheasants. Together they devise the "Sleeping Beauty" plan to drug two hundred pheasants in Hazell's wood by filling raisins with powdered sleeping pills and distributing them for the pheasants to eat. This local wood belongs to the detested, corpulent, exceedingly rich and obnoxious snob, Mr Victor Hazell. Danny and his father have a violent dislike of Victor Hazell, and they hope their plan to poach all his pheasants will ruin his annual pheasant shoot, held for all the nobility and "fancy folk" in the county. Will the plan work?
With another cast of fantastic boys I couldn't wait to get started on this year's KS3 production. I found myself looking for plays just weeks after finishing 'Jungle Book' which I think was a little bit ahead of myself! We have finally moved away from playing animals this year, so look forward to actually getting to see the faces of the cast!
Danny has been an enjoyable experience, with the boys at NSB putting in so much commitment and focus. Most importantly the boys in KS3 seem to have had a lot of fun and have been given a chance to get to know students from other years that they wouldn't get to know without the production. They have managed to make Miss Bason and I laugh uncontrollably at least once in each rehearsal with their funny voices and very dramatic approach to rehearsals. I hope you will enjoy the show as much as we have enjoyed putting it together! |
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