Cranford Review 2019

1927 presents… “It was a really lovely trip - thank you
for arranging. Pupils were really taken
aback by the themes of the production,
particularly frustrated at the idea that
those living on the estate would never
leave the estate even though some had
high aspirations to do so. There were
lots of conversations about how they
would direct the ending if they had the
chance to do so”.
On
Wednesday 6th
March 2019 we
were privileged and fortunate
to be in invited to the Lyric
Theatre Hammersmith to see
an interesting new play. This
play promised to be different
combining animation with
stage production. The year
7 students who have been studying animation and drama in their
creative arts lessons took a swift commute to Hammersmith where we
joined an audience made of more schools and enjoyed this inventive
production.
The story took place in a cabaret style Russian inspired town where
the inhabitants lived in fear of the animals and children that lived
on the streets. We followed several characters who lived in the run
down city as they dreamt of escaping. It was beautiful to watch as
the actors brought large, odd characters to life and then inhabited the
strange setting. The whole play took place in front of a screen upon
which the city and elements were projected. For example; When a
character swept animated dust would blow in the background and
later the actors were chased by cartoon creatures.
Everyone left with different interpretations of the story and strong
opinions of what they did and didn’t like. It was amazing to hear the
discussions from year 7 about what bits were the best and why.
Dan Ramsden (Creative Arts – Drama & Animation)
Jasmeet Birdi (Head of Year 7)
“This performance was amazing. The
acting was really good and the audience
could interact a lot throughout the play.
The actors were funny and I feel like
everyone interacted and was able to
laugh and have fun. The scenes were
well structured. You could clearly see
the different scenes throughout the
play. I really enjoyed the experience
and I loved the whole concept of the
production as well as it being well
performed it was well rehearsed and
all the crew was friendly”.
Caitlin Pyatt (year 7)
“When I went to watch the play I thought
was going to be a lot more ‘childfriendly’
but I soon came to know that
it was a lot more ‘exposing’ than what
I expected, and a good play overall.
The play was about a town which was
corrupt with a woman making a sweet
that poisoned them and kidnapped them
for child labour. It was really thrilling
as I was surrounded by hundreds of
other people and school children”.
Ashwin Baiju (year 7)
“I found the play really interesting
because there was only one actor
playing loads of different characters.
This made the play really funny and
the people were dressed up and looked
really good. The cast were very friendly
and they were giving sweets to the
audience which was cool”.
Amy Moore (year 7)
10
Theatre
“The Lyric Theatre performance
was the full package of laughter,
feelings, entertainment and
of course sweets. For my first
ever time seeing a live theatre
performance I would rate it 10
out of 10 as every scene had a sort
of interaction with the audience
that made it more interesting
than just sitting there quietly.
I would totally recommend this
performance and definitely all my
class mates agreed that this was
an amazing treat organised by the
creative arts department”.
Alana Freitas (year 7)