William Brookes School Blog

Another great performance by our Theatre Studies students as ’A view from the bridge’ was met with a standing ovation on its first night.

We’re hoping our resident reviewer, Tom Jennings, will soon be submitting his thoughts on the performance. Watch this space. In the meantime, here’s some photos of the play.

Don’t be afraid to post a comment about any of the performances you might have seen or been involved in. Who was it who said “ain’t nobody got famous by not being talked about.”?

A View From The Bridge

Performed by the A2 Theatre Group

By Tom Poole

As one of the seminal works of the great playwright, Arthur Miller, A View From the Bridge deserved to be given a decent rendition by our A2 drama students, half of whom worked on the play (the other half worked on the previously performed Hedda Gabler). Miller’s play is set within the grim hardships of the 1950’s New York docklands, and concerns the tragic story of Eddie Carbone, an Italian-American longshoreman, his dubious relations with his niece and his dispute with Rodolfo, the Italian immigrant who is courting her.

I had high expectations of this piece, what with the inclusion of proven thespians such as Amber Regan and Gabriella Hill, along with; Chris Walthorne, Robbie Smith, Jamie Ryan and Sam Lamplugh filling the rest of the main cast. This, combined with the directorial debut of Tom Jennings, made it an exciting prospect. A good prospect became a good play when performed on Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26^th of February, and ability transcended age, with Amber Regan of Year 13 and Chris Walthorne of Year 12 being the pick of the bunch, playing Beatrice and Eddie and setting a consistently high level of performance for the others to live up to. And boy did they rise up to the challenge, with every cast member playing their respective role with great intensity and emotional sensitivity, which served to lend a great energy to the piece, making it one of the most enjoyable plays I have seen in some time.

Fraser, Emily and Jessica weather the storm

Despite the weather, our Maths Challenge entrants made a strong showing earlier this month in an attempt to achieve glory for themselves and their school.

The Annual Challenge is run by the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust, with each paper marked by an external examiner.

As a school with Maths and Computing Specialism status, William Brookes has an excellent reputation to uphold, and no less than 70 students of varying ages took up the challenge last week.  Once again, we are expecting to receive a number of Bronze, Silver and, hopefully, Gold Awards for our efforts this year.

The best performing students from each age category will take the’Olympiad Challenge’ later in the year.

…Well, for Hedda Gabler at least! It all ends in tears for the star of the show, as portrayed by Laura Whitehouse on Thursday 12th and Friday 13th February.

Joining Laura in the performance were: Chloe Williams, Mrs Newall, Josh Slater, Melissa Sharpe, Tom Poole and Mike Yates.

Check out our next production: Arthur Miller’s classic ‘A View from the Bridge’ - Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th February. 7.30 p.m. at the Edge. £5.00 / £4.00

Hedda Gabler

Performed by the A2 Theatre Group

By Tom Jennings

Written by Herik Ibsen in 1890, Hedda Gabler was received with mainly negative reviews to begin with, but since then it has become widely recognized as a great piece of work for its realism and portrayal of the character of Hedda Gabler as a woman quietly fighting the circumstances she is in.

Hedda Gabler marries Jorgen Tesman an “academic” who is oblivious to any of the social nuances of the time and is more absorbed in his work. This causes Hedda to seek fun in manipulating the people around her. Hedda is by no means a weak woman as she shows the most strength out of all the characters; this is evident even in the way that all the other characters know her as “Hedda Gabler” or “General Gabler’s Daughter” and never “Mrs. Tesman”, an indication that she isn’t tied down by her husband.

The performance of Hedda Gabler I saw was brilliant. Hedda Gabler (played very well by Laura Whitehouse) was simply fantastic and Jorgen Tesman (also played very well by Josh Slater) was brilliant. Mrs. Elvsted (played by Melissa Sharpe), Aunt Julle (played by Chloe Williams), Ejlert Lovborg (played by Mike Yates) and Judge Brack (played by Tom Poole) even the servant to Tesman, Berte, (played by Mrs. Newell) were all well portrayed. Watching this performance was a delight, all the comedy was delivered effectively and the dramatic moments were performed with great skill.

I would gladly watch this performance or any other by this group, again.