A PERFECT POETRY AND PROSE
The sun almost shone and it was very nearly warm for the first time in years, as staff, pupils and parents arrived with their picnics and thermal vests for a celebration of British icons.
Ben Stone and Xander Veitch opened the show with a tribute to the Two Ronnies, and so ‘in a packed programme tonight’, proceedings got off to a pun-fuelled start. Ben and Xander also gave the audience an invaluable lesson or two in the art of being an actor, parts I and II. Their comic timing was wonderful and Xander’s deadpan expression, priceless. The boys ably assisted Izzy O’Gorman and Amelia Eden Hamilton with their extract from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as the squabbling Hermia and Helena.
The anniversary of Shakespeare’s death 400 years ago had already been commemorated by the school but there is always room for more Shakespeare! Ben Pearson’s performance of Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy was outstanding. Izzy Robinson and Alice Robinson were Orsino and Viola, respectively, from Twelfth Night and Alice later gave a moving performance as a bitter, vengeful Rosalind, from Romeo and Juliet. Our final Shakespeare reading was by Sophie Lindsay, who closed the show with an extract from The Tempest.
Other anniversaries that were celebrated included that of the birth of Charlotte Bronte, in 1816, with a powerful reading from Jane Eyre, by Elspeth Todd and a poignant and thoughtful reading by Christian Folkesson of the poem In Flanders Fields, in memory of those who died in 1916, at The Battle of the Somme. Lily Aldridge gave a brilliant reading as Severus Snape from Harry Potter by way of tribute to the late actor, Alan Rickman.
On a lighter note, Kathryn Rush’s tribute to Victoria Wood was hilarious. The sketch Fattitude had Kathryn jumping up and down in a padded leotard, encouraging us all to get fit but still find time for the odd cake or three. Whilst we are on the subject of food, Ryan Lee and Ben Wallis paid further tribute to Ronnie Corbett with the hilarious Crossed Lines. Ryan’s character phoned home to check his wife’s shopping list but his conversation is interrupted by Ben’s, to a friend’s night out with his new girlfriend! Emma Aspray and Phoebe Bolton shamelessly used our Headmaster’s name in their piece about the fickleness of men!
Archie Fogg and Ronan McKeigue were excellent as the two young boys from Dennis Potter’s play, Blue Remembered Hills and did a terrific job in mastering the Gloucestershire accent! Milly Morgan was outstanding as an emotionally, as well as physically scarred young woman, and Thea Knight and Olivia Wallis made an enchanting Owl and Pussy Cat. Lexie Drake and Maddie Stocks read beautifully, an extract from The Lie Tree which won the Costa Book of the Year in 2015, and Ben Pearson and Alex McClaren performed an extract from the play, One Man, Two Guvnors. It is a very funny play and the boys really did it justice. Harry Langhorn’s monologue about the various aggravations of modern life obviously struck a chord with many members of the audience!
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Lewis Tomlinson for stepping in at the last moment to read, and to thank Mrs George and Mr Robertson for performing their poems so brilliantly too. I think it was just as well Mr Robertson’s wife was unable to attend! Further thanks go to Max Trusler and Ben Higgens for their hilarious Fry and Laurie sketch: I am still blushing: and to my fabulous co-hosts, Claudia Eeles and Esther Kirrage.
The evening ended with a ‘taster’ of the forthcoming Lower School production of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. It was a great way to end Poetry and Prose 2016.
Mrs Parrack