Following the Year 9 and Year 10 performance evenings, pupils from Year 8 spent time during class rehearsing and perfecting short plays, which they performed to an audience on Thursday 12 May in the Tithe Barn theatre. The audience was absolutely packed, with parents, friends and staff all having turned out to see the comic gold of the Year 8’s hard work.
The Year 8 pupils were set the not insignificant task of designing sets, costumes and lighting, as well as finding scenes to perform and rehearsing them. The pieces varied hugely in content, meaning that the audience were kept on their toes throughout the evening. The one thing that they did share in common, however, was their humour; each group had chosen a comic piece that elicited fantastic responses from the audience, keeping them engrossed in the action onstage.
Johnny Yulhanson and Will Lovatt opened the evening, with a hilarious scene about two military men, preparing to watch an enemy. However, as it transpired, the enemy was imaginary and the two soldiers were simply trying to create some fun for themselves! The following play, a very clever piece about consumerism in today’s society, focused on two people who had been kidnapped, in order to brainwash them into wanting to buy big brand labels. Ben Ferguson gave a hilarious performance in skin-tight women’s leggings, prancing about onstage to an advertisement jingle! Kai O’Hare and Isaac Kennedy were next in the spotlight, as a mismatched pair of housemates. Kai played a nervous man suffering from OCD, who finds out that his layabout’s housemate’s snake has eaten his hamster! The next piece – an innovative scene about one man giving dating advice to another – was brilliantly comic in the contrast between the characters. Luke Theodorou played the suave serial dater, whilst Luke Taylor donned giant glasses and a bow tie as the nerdy, uncertain tutee. A piece about two young teenagers trying to rob an old lady’s home, and getting nowhere when she was as hard as nails, went down brilliantly with the audience! Isaac Kennedy was back to the stage next, joining Casper Good as two dogs, waiting outside for their owners. Complete with dog ears and toys, the pair made a hilarious sight onstage, and delivered lines from dogs with such deadpan emotion the audience were highly amused. Monty Greenaway and Ben Thornber delivered a piece about two old men, who made up stories about killing and eating one another purely to liven up their mundane humdrum of daily life. Kai O’Hare was back onstage to close the evening, in a hilarious three-man piece about gang-life, with a tongue-twister of rhyming names.
The Year 8 pupils worked tirelessly on the set design, lighting, costume and content, and pulled off what was a very entertaining evening. Head of Drama Mrs Jenny Nunes commented that ‘the pupils surpassed even our high expectations; the audience seemed thoroughly entertained and we got to watch all of their hard work come to fruition. Well done boys!’