DRAMA
This year, 288 pupils participated in 7 Drama productions
It’s been another fantastic year for the Drama department at Ardingly. Highlights include:
BLITHE SPIRIT
Nöel Cowards’s classic Blithe Spirit was brilliantly brought to life by our incredibly talented sixth form cast - who showed fantastic comic timing - and by our student technical crew who seamlessly handled the complicated stage management, lighting and even some pyrotechnics!
The story follows two couples - a clairvoyant, a deceased-wife-returned-as-a-ghost and a housemaid-revealed-as-a-psychic - as they conjured up a mischievous ghost story in which the idly comfortable life of Iggy Upton’s self-satisfied Charles Condomine’s is gloriously upended. Alongside him until the final joyous destruction of Charles’ life and house were Louisa Burnell, Isabelle Grundy and Josh Martin in the roles of an outraged Ruth Condomine, a flighty Elvira and a very fluid Madame Arati.
The National School Theatre Awards commended it as, “not just a school production; it was a testament to the power of collaboration, creativity and commitment.”
SHERMOCK
In the same week as Blithe Spirit, an entirely student-written and produced show entitled Shermock came to life.
Hugo Bryant’s panto-not-panto Shermock took us on a wild ride through his cultural obsessions (Monty Python and Pink Floyd prominent among them), while Leonardo Ramondetti’s West-End style chorus lifted the roof.
Mr Figgis described it as, “a brilliant blend of wit, mystery and mayhem.”
GUYS AND DOLLS
Sin and Salvation threw on their costumes to give us a wonderfully foot-tapping production of Guys and Dolls. The familiar characters of Sky, Sarah, Nathan and Miss Adelaide circled around the revolving stage (yes, actually) with the gambling low-lifes Nicely-Nicely, Society Max and Big Jule being chased by Lieutenant Brannigan to recreate 1950s New York.
Inspired by a recent Bridge Theatre production in which the audience intermingled with the cast, one of the production's stars was the relaxed atmosphere at café tables and with a glass in hand. The big-number hits were also major highlights, with Aeshan Devani, Amelia Hawkins, Alexandra Horsfield and George Grimaldi, belting out the likes of Luck Be A Lady, I’ll Know and Marry the Man Today, as well as carrying the storyline. As a romantic-comedy-musical the script also delivered some terrific lines.
ROBIN HOOD
The Legend Re-Written
Re-telling such a well-known story as Robin Hood requires a quirky angle, and this was served up in spoonfuls by the Shell and Remove players’ outdoor production, centred around the oak tree on the North Quad.
With the action driven by the greedy Sheriff exploiting both a feckless King – wonderfully sent up by Theo Lemonius – and his downtrodden subjects, riding to the rescue was not our emerald-clad hero but instead the Sheriff’s wife and the Millar’s daughter ‘Woodnut’. Not one but three Robin Hoods in turn made their grand entrances, only to be shunned as the ineffectual charades they were.
Brilliantly accompanied by a Minstrel band and Sophia Valentim’s voice, and an ensemble of black-clad goading Barons and fatally idealistic woodlanders, the show was as English as a roast chestnut and as unpredictable as the weather - and all the more fun for it!