Bishop Wordsworth's School
Extra-Curricular
Drama
Journey’s End
‘How frightfully quiet it is...’
A lone poppy, lies tangled amidst the barbed wire at the front of the stage, a symbolic reminder of the suffering war causes. Life in the trenches on the Western Front is a thousand miles away from Salisbury on a chilly evening, but it was brought hauntingly to life by a cast of eight students in a performance of R.C. Sherriff’s ‘Journey’s End’ in March 2010.
The play portrays the lives of a company of men during the week preceding an enemy attack. The tense circumstances in the trenches were recreated with a combination of accomplished acting and a claustrophobic atmosphere produced by the effective set design. The complex relationships between the men were revealed through excellent performances from the entire cast, headed by Joe Burke’s magnificent portrayal of the tragic Captain Stanhope. When Stanhope is confronted with the arrival of Raleigh (Alun Simpson) an old friend from school who hero-worships him, his dialogue becomes secondary to his ability to simply be the part and he said more with his facial expressions than any amount of words could have conveyed.
Live piano music and singing by members of the cast completed what was a compelling performance that managed to move some members of the audience to tears. The actors were able to incorporate humour and sadness into the piece and left the viewers silent after the pain of the final scene, before the tumultuous applause set in. The technical and backstage teams made the performance a reality as much as the actors with the fantastic costumes and light and sound effects.
The performance raised £500 for the charity ‘Riding for the Disabled’ in Wilton, an important charity for the boys where some of them volunteer.
By Paddy Le Count
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A Christmas Carol
This year’s BWS and SWGS school production was an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol by John Mortimer. A very strong cast of twenty nine students from years eight to thirteen performed in the play with most actors contributing to the Chorus as well as taking on the challenge of a number of different roles.
In a break with convention, the character of old Scrooge was shared between six different actors!
Performers were ably supported by a very talented backstage team who took responsibility for stage management, lighting, sound, wardrobe, makeup, set construction, props, art work, publicity, front of house and anything else that was needed. Altogether more than eighty students were involved and worked superbly as a team.
I was especially indebted to the team of musicians who not only chose the carols and rehearsed the actors, but also composed and played all the incidental music creating some real atmosphere to the performance.
All photographs were taken by sixth form students: Julian Farmer, Mike Flaws and Tom Reynolds.
Please click here to see the photographs.
P Shingles
Head of Theatre Studies
Please click here for the archived Drama details.