William Brookes School Blog

The stage setting for Berkoff’s The Trial states: The stage is bare. Ten screens and ten chairs and a rope are the set. The screens are the structure of the city – law courts, houses and endless corridors. They are a maze and a trap – they are mirrors and paintings – they are external and internal worlds. The cast are K’s environment; the rope, his route as well as his death.

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Steven Berkoff’s adaptation of Franz Kafka’s classic novel has the central character, K, spending all his time and effort attempting to discover what his guilt is, only to find out that it is the ‘guilt of betraying his inner spirit to the safety of mediocrity’. There, we’ve given it away now! 

Our A2 Theatre Studies students gave two performances of The Trial and I can vouch for the first one - an excellent experience. The play was superbly choreographed to the point were it almost became a dance. The performers ebbed and flowed about the stage and the lighting and visual effects enriched the deliberately minimal set. Watch this space for a student review of the second performance.

The Trial

WOW! What a fantastic experience. The trial was so cleverly performed, it went from scene to scene so quickly, it was really slick! The reason it went from scene to scene so quickly was because of the really clever scenery. The scenery was basically about ten wooden door frames that were light and easy to move about the stage. The door frames turned into loads of things including a church, a bank, an office, a row of houses and even a train!

The thing that made the scenery come really come alive though was the actors and the amazing sounds which they produced that were cleverly choreographed into the scenes. Each actor had their own particular sound that made a very realistic atmosphere (and quite a funky tune!). It really brought the play to life.

The constant flow of smoke made a really spooky atmosphere, but it wasn’t all serious and scary; there was a very good balance of serious acting and humour. There were loads of funny moments like the screen that was illuminated when the lawyer went to the toilet (it was gruesomely realistic!).

The storyline was about a man who worked in a bank called Joseph K. He was on trial but not a usual trial. Basically it was a trial for being boring, doing the same thing over and over again! He rushed around the stage trying to find the right path to go down in his mind - the right thing to do. However, he suddenly realizes that the only path to choose is death! At the end, he gets hung in a big cloud of smoke, it was very dramatic and sad, but when it had finished I wanted to see it all over again! A truly amazing performance and I hope all of the actors get their A-Levels! WELL DONE TO EVERYONE INVOLVED!

Review by Zach Jones, Year 8

If dress rehearsals are anything to go by, it looks like the audience for William Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew are in for a bit of a treat.

Tickets are on sale now, and can be purchased on the night - Wednesday 3rd at 7.30 p.m. and Thursday 4th at 7.30 p.m.

Prices are £5, £4 concessions.