Poetry and Prose 2015: Myth and Illusion

Poetry and Prose 2015: Myth and Illusion

Shall I compare Poetry and Prose to a summer’s day? Well, I’d like to, but, as usual, the weather was uncooperative!

Once again, a fabulous crowd of picnicking parents and staff filled the marquee with sumptuous food and the odd bottle or two of fizz. It is gratifying to know that P and P, as it is affectionately known, is a cause for celebration!

The show kicked off with Ben Stone, from Year 10, under the illusion he was a master at Warminster. He soon settled us all down and Marco Yeung in Year 11, read a beautiful poem called The Boy with a Cloud in His Hand.

Performances ranged from Shakespeare, to Tennyson and Shelley and then to modern day authors, such as David Walliams. Lexie Drake and Alice Robinson’s (both Year 8) interpretation of the fairy tales from Walliam’s novel, Awful Auntie were very amusing!

It was a final Poetry and Prose for Charles Dunn, Emma Tizard, Amy James, Will Pratt, Tommy Morgan, Tash Ross and Marie-Claire Wood. They have been such great supporters of the event and I remember at least three of them performing for us all in Year 7.

The current Year 7 was very well represented with Mrs Wood’s English set performing their own interpretation of the Greek myth, Daedalus and Icarus. Maisie Craven-Smith and Olivia Wallis paired up for Roald Dahl’s version of Little Red Riding Hood. Olivia’s brother, Ben, along with his fellow Year 10 student, Oliver Morgan, performed their hilarious and delusional Mid-Somerset festival winning drama piece, Bouncers!

There was nudity this year too – Ben Stone displayed his bare chest! It was all in the cause of art though, as he and Amelia Eden-Hamilton gave a hilarious rendition of The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God. Amelia was also kind enough to give a reading of her own incredible winning story for the School’s 500 words competition.

There was much hilarity with Monty Python’s Four Yorkshiremen sketch being reduced to Two Yorkshiremen, with Will Pratt and Tommy Morgan exchanging the hats on their heads at a rate of knots, and Rory Lomas’s (Year 10) Father of the Bride speech, courtesy of Rowan Atkinson. I wonder if that particular sketch struck a chord with anyone in the audience?

The Year 10 girls got in on the act too: yes, pun intended, with Rebecca Pearson and Katy Armstrong’s (both Year 10) performance of The Big Lie. It focused on a fierce but brilliant teacher and her dedicated, hardworking pupil so I cannot think from whom they got their inspiration.

Finally, the whole evening was presented by me and my two fabulous co-hosts: Esther Kirrage and Helena Winchcombe (both Lower Sixth). The girls were stars and the whole marquee joined in a sing-along of Happy Birthday for Esther’s mother. Mrs Kirrage had come all the way from a baking hot Dubai, to enjoy the great British summer at Warminster School. Now an English summer: that is a myth!

Mrs Susie Parrack
English