William Brookes School Blog

Mind the Gap is an evolving group of William Brookes School theatre students either in, or contemplating their gap year.

‘The Pillowman’ tells the dark tale of a writer in a non-specified totalitarian state being interrogated over the content of several of his Brothers Grimm style short stories. He finds out that there have been a series of local child murders that seem to have been inspired by his gruesome stories. Only one other person has read most of those stories, however: his intellectually disabled brother, who just happens to be in the next interrogation room.

The performances are on Thursday 29th and Friday 30th April at 7.30 p.m.  Admission prices are £5 and £4 concessions.

Here are a few shots from our recent production of ‘Kiss Me Kate. The musical attracted a lot of interest and ran for four nights.

Well done to all the cast, musicians, production team and outside agencies who helped make this show as spectacular as it was.

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.

“What a legacy”, says Antigone to her sister, Ismene, at the beginning of this play, reflecting on the tragedy of their family’s history.

With both parents dead, after discovering that their children had been the result of an incestuous union, and both brothers dead, fighting each other for control of Thebes, all the surviving sisters have left is each other. Now, even that relationship is threatened as each weighs up whether it is better to obey the laws of the land or the laws of the gods.

Sophocles’ ‘Antigone’ is the third play in the Theban trilogy about Oedipus and his family. Although written nearly two and a half thousand years ago in a very different time and culture from our own, the play has a very real relevance for us here and now, asking us the question: how far would you go for your beliefs?

Antigone will run for two nights - Wednesday, 20th and Thursday 21st January at 7.30 pm. Admission is £5 and £4 concessions.

A famous political figure once played a character from Antigone whilst imprisoned in the 60s. Anyone know who that was and which character they played?

Watch this space for a Year 8 student’s review of the play.

Well here it is and today it’s read one read another free:

I thought that the actors and actresses were very talented because there was a lot of speech but they hardly ever forgot their lines and they kept in time with each other when they did a few sentences together. Also, the ones who had to swear were very brave because they didn’t laugh, get embarassed or look away.

I thought the play itself was very sad, due to everyone dying a terrible death, but I only thought this because all of the performers expressed their emotions very well.

I could really feel the love Antigone had for her dead brother and how Antigone’s fiancé feels when he finds out that his future wife has been sent to her death by his own father, and how that messenger person must have felt when he was told that if he didn’t find the betrayer then he would be killed.

I would like to tell all of the performers and directors that it was a brilliant show. Well done – I give it a 10/10

Tara M.

The play was fantastic! It had dance routines, clever acting and much more! The start was dramatic - with loud booming music and flickering lights, it made a very big impact.

The storyline was amazing but very sad. It was all about the law against the burial of one of Antigone’s two brothers. The noble one was allowed to be buried but the traitor had to be left to rot outside. Antigone went against this law, so she was sentenced to death. She was locked up in an old shack on the top of a moor. She couldn’t take it any longer, so she hung herself. This was done on a clever screen with a light behind it, so the actors appeared as shadows. This meant that the scene could be more detailed and the hanging could be even more detailed.

I’m sure everybody in the audience was on the edge to find out what would happen next, but we soon found out. There was a chain reaction of suicides. First Antigone’s fiancé, then the fiancés mother (the Emperor’s wife), then the Emperor himself. It really was the ultimate tragedy.

It was so amazingly put together and must have took ages to learn all the lines and perform them as well as they did.

Truly a fantastic performance! Well done to all the actors in it and everyone else who was involved!

Zach J.

Film Studies students have been busy promoting a performance as part of their work for the Young Promoters Scheme. Pathway to the Red Sun is set in a futuristic Japan and is a fusion of acrobatics, opera and horror, with a love interest. Something for everyone, by the sounds of it.

The show will air for one night only, and tickets are on sale now at £8/£6 with a special rate of just £4 for students. So, if you want a ticket you’d better beat a pathway to the Edge, pronto. Performance is Thursday 5th March at 7.30 pm.

Click on the poster to jump to the website.

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.

With the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, came the advent of the actress - the ‘playhouse creature’ to which April De Angelis’ title refers. Performed by actresses only, men are referred to ‘off stage’ as they wield influence and power that affects each of the actresses differently.

William Brookes’ AS Theatre Studies have brought this production to life at ‘the Edge’, Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd January. Both performances begin at 7.30 p.m. and cost £5.00 and £4.00 concession.

Below, we have compiled some dress rehearsal photographs.

Playhouse Creatures

Performed by the WBS AS Theatre Studies Group

By Tom Jennings

Watching Playhouse Creatures was a delight. The performance of each actor was well handled especially Lily Porter as Nell Gwynn, a foul mouthed opportunist who wants to be an actress to make herself money and live in high society.

Written by April De Angelis, Playhouse Creatures is set in the 1660’s, when women were allowed by Kings Charles II to perform on stage as part of productions. The play deals with women who are part of this group known as “the playhouse creatures” who are trying to get over most of the old ideas that still exist about the theatre.

The character of Mrs. Betterton, played very well by Alice Beck and Beth Dawes, shows a woman who had been breaking the law by performing in plays before King Charles II’s law was passed who is coming to the end of her career as she is being replaced by younger women such as Nell, who only want to be in the theatre for the money and fame, while she was in the theatre for her love of acting.

It was a brilliant and funny performance overall and my only regret was not seeing it the day before so I could have seen it again.

AS Level Theatre Studies students have been busy rehearsing a performance of Joan Littlewood’s ’Oh, What a Lovely War!

This William Brookes stage adaptation of the famous musical sees all of the cast dressed in Pierrot style costumes.

The show forms part of their studies and is being staged at the Edge  Thursday 15th, Friday 16th and Saturday 17th January.

Oh, What A Lovely War!
Performed By the Year 11 Drama Group
It was clear from the moment that I sat down that Oh, What a Lovely War! was a very prolific play. Its subject matter is, of course, very touchy to some people, as it attempts to satirise war on a whole by depicting certain aspects of World War One. In particular, the incompetent leadership skills of the generals at the time and the blind willingness of certain soldiers to race into a hail of machine-gun fire. The term “Lions led by Donkeys” was a key point of this play and it showed clearly that this was not a “straight laced” play.
Written in 1963 by Joan Littlewood it shows the incompetence of the generals in charge of the different forces of the First World War and how their disregard for life and focus on money led to millions of soldiers being needlessly killed. With its use of music hall songs and Brechtian acting it was a revolutionary play to be performed for its time.
The actors performed the play with much flair especially in the good execution of multi-roling and the projections that were used to great extent. The one criticism I have of the play is that the songs seemed a little under rehearsed but aside from this the acting stood out.
I would recommend anyone to see this play, when it’s performed, if they are interested in World War One or history in general.

By Tom Jennings, Year 12