School and Independent Plays - Michaelmas 2011-Summer 2012
WHAT'S ON AT THE THEATRE?
Michaelmas 2011
F Block Stage Crew Demonstration
Friday 17th September
Farrer Theatre
5.20pm
The Theatre's capacity is revealed by the Farrer crew in a demonstration which culminates with a stunning light show.
School Play
Joseph K
by Tom Basden
Thursday 13th to Saturday 15th October
Farrer Theatre
8.15pm
Things are looking good for successful young banker Joseph K until his sushi delivery is intercepted by two suited goons with a warrant for his arrest and his life is turned violently inside out. Surreal comedy gives way to paranoid nightmare in this brilliantly zany remake of Kafka's The Trial, written by rising comedy star Tom Basden, and premiered last year in London, where it wowed audiences and critics alike.
School Play, directed by SHSD
The Importance of being Earnest
by Oscar Wilde
Thursday 3rd to Saturday 5th November
Caccia Studio
8.15pm
Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" is one of the wittiest plays in the English language. Subtitled "A trivial comedy for serious people" it has been a favourite with actors and audiences for over a century; an evening where upper class manners and mores are celebrated and satirised, sometimes simultaneously.
JMG House Play, directed by PB
Much Ado about Nothing
by William Shakespeare
Thursday 10th to Saturday 12th November
Farrer Theatre
8.15pm
1945. Italy has lost the war and the boys are back. Some are ready for love, others are ready for revenge. Shakespeare's zany, sexy and dangerous comedy, is set under a sultry Sicilian sky.
ASR House Play, directed by ML
Confusions
by Alan Ayckbourn
Monday 14th to Wednesday 16th November
Empty Space
8.15pm
These short tragicomedies consider the human dilemma of loneliness through a combination of naturalism and farce. Whether they concern marital conflict, infidelity or motherhood, these fast-paced, hysterical, poignant, plays will leave you stunned and thirsting for more.
Independent Play, directed by Jack Parham KS
Murder in the Cathedral
by T.S. Eliot
Thursday 24th - Saturday 26th November
Caccia Studio
8.15pm
"Seek the way of martyrdom, make yourself the lowest on earth, to be high in Heaven” -- an enjoinder not from a contemporary terrorist suicide video, but to a twelfth-century archbishop. The final days of Thomas Becket form the setting for a philosophical verse drama about the conflict between temporal power and spiritual power, between vanity and self-giving, between earthly pride and heavenly grandeur.
PBS House Play, directed by SJD
The Greek Myths
by GCSE Drama students
Thursday 1st December
Empty Space
6.30pm and 8.15pm
An evening of whacky and inventive physical theatre devised by GCSE Drama students: it's the Greek myths, Jim, but not as we know them.
Directed by the boys assisted by SHSD and PB
The Comedy of Errors
by William Shakespeare
Tuesday 29th November to Thursday 1st December
Farrer Theatre
8.15pm
Two sets of twins are torn apart at birth in Shakespeare's knockabout comedy. Mayhem, mistaken identities, and far too many puns lead to a happy ending set to the salsa sounds of the 1950s .
NJR House Play, choreography by Neil Fisher; directed by H-E.O
Lent 2012
The Cripple of Inishmaan
by Martin McDonagh
Thursday 19th to Saturday 21st January
Caccia Studio
8.15pm
Set off the Western Coast of Ireland in 1934, the inhabitants of a remote Island in this dark comedy are excited to learn of a Hollywood film crew's arrival to make a documentary about their life. "Cripple" Billy Claven, eager to escape the gossip, poverty and boredom of Inishmaan, vies for a part in the film, and to everyone's surprise, the orphan and outcast gets his chance.
TEWH House Play, directed by RGS, Director in Residence
The Last Act
by Guy Clark
Thursday 2nd to Saturday 4th February
Caccia Studio
8.15pm
For the past ten years, life has been one long in-joke for Ben and Leo. But now cracks are starting to appear. Beneath the boyish wit and relentless one-upmanship lies a tension that is beginning to put increasing pressure on the pair. As Ben tries to work out what his friend is hiding from him, Leo's carelessly self-involved lifestyle is about to take a darker turn that no amount of charm can reverse.
Independent Play, directed by Guy Clark
Attempts On Her Life
by Martin Crimp
Thursday 9th February
Empty Space
8.15pm
Can you ever truly know someone? Using radically different approaches – action movie, documentary, pop video, porn scenario, film treatment, ad campaign, crime scene investigation – a group of friends attempt to make sense of the life of a young woman who has disappeared. Was she a victim of terrorism or its perpetrator? A good daughter or a bad lot? A film star or a porn slave? One of the greatest and most disturbing plays of the eighties is given an immediate, physical-theatre treatment by the AS Drama students.
Directed by SHSD
The Front Page
by Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur
Tuesday 7th – Thursday 9th February
Farrer Theatre
8.15pm
A jailbreak, a hostage hidden in a desk, a love-struck journalist, a crazy editor, a tart with a heart, an incompetent sheriff and a crooked mayor create mayhem in this classic comedy set in the world of a Chicago news room. A melodramatic, funny and exciting comedy.
PGW House Play, directed by JPB
The History Boys
by Alan Bennett
Thursday 23rd to Saturday 25th February
Caccia Studio
8.15pm
An hilarious visit to an unruly class of gifted and charming teenage boys, taught by two excentric and innovative teachers, as their headmaster pushes for them all to get accepted into Oxbridge.
NCWS House Play, directed by ML
Fuente Ovejuna
by Lope de Vega, adapted by Adrian Mitchell
Thursday 1st to Saturday 3rd March
Farrer Theatre
8.15pm
This Spanish Golden-Age masterpiece is the true story of a 15th-century tyrannical overlord's serial torture, rape and murder of his subjects and their ingenious revenge. An action-packed, fast-moving tragicomedy, regarded by many as the prodigious dramatist's greatest play, it is a testament to the power of love and solidarity in the face of terrifying evil.
GRP House Play, directed by NCH
Hamlet House of Horror
adapted by Chris Barton & Katie Bulmer
Thursday 8th to Saturday 10th March
Caccia Studio
8.15pm
Shakespeare meets the Rocky Horror Show in this modern, dynamic, musical and blackly comedic version of the classic. One of the mega-hits of this year's Edinburgh Fringe.
RPDF House Play, directed by ACDG-C.
House Drama Competition
Thursday 15th – Saturday 17th March
Caccia Studio
8.15pm
Excerpts and Short Plays directed by boys.
Masters i/c JPB & RGS
Dealer's Choice
by Patrick Marber
Sunday 18th March
Empty Space
8.15pm
and
Tuesday 20th March
Empty Space
8.15pm
This multi-award-winning comedy, set during a late-night poker game in a contemporary London restaurant, explores the allure of gambling and the damage it can do. Written by"Alan Partridge" script-writer, Patrick Marber.
GCSE Drama students, directed by PB, SHSD and RGS
Summer 2012
Flames over New Jersey
by Alex Fane & Angus Graham-Campbell
Thursday 3rd to Saturday 5th May
Empty Space
8.15pm
Set in a speakeasy in the world of The Great Gatsby, this is a new play with live jazz, exploring a world of illicit booze, young love, and gangsters, excitingly staged with the audience at tables right in amongst the action. Independent Play, directed by Alex Fane.
Independent Play, directed by Alex Fane
School Play
Cyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand, in a translation by Anthony Burgess
Thursday 17th to Saturday 19th May
Farrer Theatre
8.15pm
Rostand's play has a claim to be one of the most popular French plays ever written. Using Anthony Burgess' brilliant translation the production will bring a huge cast to the Farrer stage: Cyrano the unforgettable swordsman-poet with the improbably large nose, a host of soldiers, poets, actors, bakers, monks and nuns, and the bewitching Roxanne.
School Play directed by PB
Lower Boy Play
The Crucible
by Arthur Miller
Thursday 14th to Saturday 16th June
Caccia Studio
8.15pm
Arthur Miller's classic parable of mass hysteria describes the chilling Salem witch-hunt of 1662: it is the story of how the small community of Salem is stirred into madness by superstition, paranoia and malice, culminating in a violent climax, is a savage attack on the evils of mindless persecution and the terrifying power of false accusations.
Lower Boy Play, directed by RGS, Director in Residence