Issue 7 March 18

Lord of the Flies
The Actors
LLord of the Flies is a play based on William Golding’s 1954
novel. The play is set sometime in the future when all the
children have been evacuated because of the war in England.
After the plane crashes on a desert island and all the adults
have died the children are stranded fighting for survival.
The island’s leader Rachel was played by Lucy Taylor who is in Year 9. This was Lucy’s first main role in a school play
and she did an excellent job in portraying the struggles of Rachel trying to keep the group together.
‘
When I found out I had the role I did some research into the story and the characters, so I watched the film and read the
book so I knew what Rachel was like and how to portray her.’ Commented Lucy.
The other leader – who is much meaner – is Jackie, who was played by Bryony Watts in Year 8. Bryony previously
played the Red Queen in last year’s Alice in Wonderland and throughout the play kept up Jackie’s cruel and nasty streak.
‘It was so much fun to play a character who’s so different from me (in the real world) and you can do so much with an evil
character.’ Said Bryony.
The innocent Piggy was played by Jack Johnson in Year 11. Jack has been in the school show for the past three
years and played the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland last year. For the whole of his performance, Jack played Piggy
excellently by keeping his down to earth characteristics throughout the whole show.Jack said, ‘It was a great experience
to work together with such a fantastic cast.’
Other Characters included Lucy Williams (Year 11) as the shy and sensitive Simone, Maisie Hudson (Year 11) as
Jackie’s sidekick Riley, Brett Hawkes (Year 8) as the young and curious Percival, Sam Martin (Year 8) and Erin Shingler
(Year 9) as twins Sam and Erin, Keeley Brown (Year 11) and Mia McAnenny as Jackie’s followers Billie and Hayley.
The cast started rehearsing in September and spent the past six months pulling the show together. Erin Shingler
(Year 9) who played Erin said ‘I really enjoyed rehearsals. It was quite daunting to begin with but after getting to know
everyone it was amazing!’
Rehearsals
The cast spent two to three hours every week in rehearsals and even more for the main cast who then spent
their spare time learning lines at home. Lucy Taylor (Year 9) who played Rachel said ‘I spent a lot of time learning my lines
because a lot of the interactions throughout the play are with my character.’ After Christmas the cast started rehearsing
without their scripts to help them learn their lines and prepare for performing the play. The cast also started having late
night rehearsals on Friday nights and all day rehearsals on Saturday to get in some extra practice before opening night.
While all of this was happening Mr Thomas was hard at work with his students designing and pulling the set together. The
set was amazing and really reflected the show as it was designed so the audience could tell what parts of the island the
cast were on at different times during the show. Abbie Edwards (Year 10) who worked on the set said ‘I loved working on
the set because I helped with it last year and it was so much fun.’
On Monday 12th February the cast started their tech runs. The tech runs were when the cast could figure out
where to be when the lighting changed and gave them more of a real feel to how the show would be when they performed
it that week. The tech runs also gave Carl Savage and his tech team an opportunity to take photos and videos of the
cast in action. They only had a day and a half to finish the lighting and sound until the dress rehearsal when the Year 5
children from Wilnecote Junior School came up to watch the show. This was the first time the cast performed in front of
an audience and the primary school children really enjoyed it.
Highlights
The show ran for three nights, Keeley Brown (Year 11) said ‘As it was my finale year it was great to get a speaking
role and I was nervous at the start but once we started the performance you forgot about the audience and just played
your role.’
Every night the cast would open and close the show with the same amount of effort and passion for what they
were performing even though the plot was dark and scary. The portrayal of the children on this island was so realistic and
watching it you could really see the time and effort that went into the show.
Some highlights from the show include Simone’s monologue in Act Two when she has a breakdown. Lucy Williams
(Year 11) who played Simone said ‘Seeing as my monologue is quite creepy it felt really good to give a realistic performance
and to scare the audience.’ Other highlights were Simone’s tragic death at the end of Act Two when she is killed by the
rest of the children believing that she is the beast, Piggy’s death in Act Three when Jackie and her gang push Piggy off a
cliff, and the dramatic end of the play when the Naval Officer (played by Mr Adams) rescues the children.
Mr Adams (Deputy Head) said; “It was really enjoyable to have the opportunity to work with students that I
wouldn’t normally get to interact with; it was such a fantastic experience. The drama department, led by Miss Julius and
all the staff and students involved in the show should be congratulated on such a superb effort this year. The material is
very intense and they all applied themselves superbly. A very big ‘well done’ to everyone”