The Salopian no. 166 - Winter 2020-21

SCHOOL NEWS 33
Drama 2019-2020
Even pre-COVID, this was a year like no other. Director of Drama Dr Helen Brown explains …
The academic year 2019/20 was one of huge upheaval for the Drama Department, even pre-COVID. As the bulldozers moved
in to start work on the new Barnes Theatre, the School’s thespians became nomadic, performing in venues across the School
Site. The Moser Library, Alington Hall and the Chapel were all pressed into service, and the challenges of creating site-specific
theatre gave rise to some fantastically creative solutions.
Doctor Faustus (review by LJD)
What does heaven look like? Or hell? The Butler Room in
the Moser Library isn’t the first place that comes to mind, but
was a crazily successful setting for the Upper Sixth Theatre
Studies production of Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe.
The students had chosen to adapt the original in the style of
Kneehigh, a theatre group who re-tell traditional plots using
comedy, puppetry, song and dance. Faustus sells his soul to
the devil, in return for living it up while he remains on earth.
In this show, ‘living it up’ involved dancing to Justin Bieber,
rapping a recitation of the Seven Deadly Sins, and Anya
Tonks elegantly doing the splits on the top of the library
study desks.
The high-energy cast were costumed as archetypal American
High School pupils, led by Freddie Lawson as a surprisingly
convincing sports ‘Jock’ and Grace Anderson as a rather
threatening cheerleader, with costume designer Ella Inglis-
Jones appearing as a devil when they least expected to
conjure one.
Book-loving Faustus, played by Mollie Matthews, had plenty
of gravitas, with her earnest sixteenth century verse lines,
delivered amidst the madness of a passiagiata to ‘Bat out
of Hell’, followed by a moment when everyone else in the
room was wearing Giles Bell full-face masks. Her depiction
of Faustus’ growing doubts was moving, and then hilarious,
when faced with Emily Hartland’s cutely squeaky Angel hand
puppet, and Freddie Lawson’s cheeky impersonation of
M. Portier, red devil puppet held aloft. Sound effects were
crucial to the success of the show, and Archie Tulloch, in his
first term, served the cast well from behind the desk.
There were so many laugh-out-loud transpositions from the
original, Ford Fiesta jokes and all, and, satisfyingly, it was just as
‘bonkers’ as Director of Drama Helen Brown had promised.
Peter Pan (review by LJD)
Peter Pan has been the subject of numerous adaptations for
stage and screen since its triumphant première in 1904. J.M.
Barrie’s story of pirates, mermaids and fairies has retained
its magic despite espousing social values which seem a little
uncomfortable to a contemporary audience: today’s little girls
would (thankfully) kick up a stink if required to darn socks
and wait to be rescued. This production, devised by members
of the Upper Sixth in the style of children’s theatre company
Polka, was an anarchic, gender-fluid romp that brought some
much-needed festive glitter to the Alington Hall.
The play begins in the Darling family nursery where, amid crisp
white bed linen and conventional moral certainties, Wendy,
Tom, John and Michael are growing up under the beady eye of
Nanna the dog (a masterful cameo by an unnamed member of
the Drama Faculty). Their world is turned upside down by the
death of Tom; Michael becomes a nervous stammerer, John is
“so angry he’s broken three trains” and Wendy desperately tries
to make everything better. One night, Peter explodes into their
lives, whisking them off to Neverland with the aid of a happy
thought and fairy dust provided by his trusty sidekick, Tinkerbell
(an unforgettable Ollie Shutts).
In this version, the real dramatic action lies not with Peter but
with Wendy. On the cusp of adolescence, she is pulled between
the freedom of childhood and the responsibilities of adulthood.
On the one hand, her naive sexual awakening as she flirts with
Peter; on the other, the dark uncertainties of womanhood –
creepily represented by the sequinned mini-dress she is given by
Captain Hook, gloriously played by Saffron Milner as an angry
Dolly Parton in six-inch heels and rhinestones.
This Wendy – played with warmth and charm by Ella
Niblett – is also processing grief. Her trip into Neverland
is not just a knockabout adventure, but a way to reconcile
her with the past and equip her for the future. Thus,
she wrestles with the limitations placed on her by her
womanhood – “But who cleans?” – makes friends and
embraces her independence. All this, while figuring out
where grief must end and happiness begin.
The production was full of delightful vignettes, including
the brilliant transformation from nursery to pirate ship (for
which credit must be given to the technical wizardry of
Adam Wall and Brad Fenton) and the burgeoning romance
between Tinkerbell and Martin the Cabin boy (an adorably
goofy Louis Street).
It was particularly lovely to welcome so many members of
the wider Shrewsbury community – all of whom, fortunately
for us, still believe in fairies.