House Drama Competition

Two hundred students, gathered in the Middleton Theatre, sat waiting eagerly staring at a yellow curtain, endless creativity just waiting to pour out unto their eyes and ears. The audience just oozed excitement and anticipation. This, of course, marked the annual performance of the House Drama competition.

Each House was tasked with performing a 13-minute-long piece, each one oriented around the topic of ‘Fast Films’. This meant that each House had to perform a parody of an original, well-known movie, incorporating various cultural references, and condensing all the significant events from the film. Each House performed outstandingly, with eight unique, one-ofa-kind plays that never failed to entertain the audience: from James Bond, to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Star Wars, Batman, Catch Me if You Can, and more.

With the long, hard hours of rehearsal, costume design, and stage technology programming evident throughout, overall, the annual House Drama Competition was overwhelmingly successful. Ultimately, Steven, Derham, Robinson, and an unexpected Summons emerged in the top four.

On the final night of performances, Robinson took the coveted first place with a well-deserved staging of Murder on the Orient Express, which was nothing less than a perfectly immersive and accurate reenactment of the Agatha Christie classic.

Main actors Ishaan Nandurkar (Year 12) and Harry Watson (Year 11) played flawlessly hilarious interpretations of Poirot and Bouc respectively. These characters, backed by inventive backdrops and great costumes, coalesced to paint a rich, mysterious atmosphere for a performance worthy of first place.

Summons’ performance of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith knew no bounds when it came to making the audience laugh in creative and innovative ways. Their performance was well paced and kept the audience engaged the whole time with joke after joke. A well-deserved second place!

Steven’s interpretation of Forrest Gump was an absolute joy to watch from the first to the last second on stage. Each moment and set transition from the film was effectively communicated to the audience through a diligent effort of the stage crew and cast, and the creative use of lighting and AV, such as the memorable running scene, cultivated an entertaining performance and won them third place.

Congratulations to the other Houses as well, who all worked tirelessly on their productions. Highlights included Cooper Carbone (Year 11) as Frank Abagnale in Derham’s performance of Catch Me If You Can; the mistimed sound effects here and there in Schofield’s interpretation of Batman which made for some unintentionally hilarious moments; the exceptional set and lighting in Macneil’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was nothing short of iconic; Bridgland’s James Bond captivated the audience with the slow-motion gunfight and prerecorded sequence by the villain; and, finally, Clifford’s interesting interpretation of Flying High had the audience on the edge of their seats with a questionably healthy dose of controversial humour and characters.

Thank you to the adjudicators, Mr Nigel Sutton and Head of Drama, Mr Andrew Stocker, and to the casts and crews for all their efforts in crafting a spectacular House Drama Competition this year.

Colin Jiang

Captain of Drama