House Play Festival 2022

Watson’s House Animal Farm

The House Play Festival began with an ambitious take on George Orwell’s Animal Farm The challenge of playing animals was met with colour-coordinated costumes, animal masks, and a cacophony of farmyard noises. The set and direction had been thoroughly considered, and standout moments included the impressively choreographed fight sequence and the thoughtprovoking ending, where Napoleon’s human-like abuse of power was shown through the partial lifting and then removal of his mask. This serious ending was further juxtaposed with the confident singing of Stand By Me - perhaps a clever tactic to qualify for the Best Musical award? Or, a striking juxtaposition of an upbeat, heartfelt song with the abuses of power we saw Napoleon carrying out against his fellow animals?

Wiseman’s House Check Please

Wiseman’s showcased the difficulties of dating in their comical performance of Check Please. As anyone familiar with Channel 4’s reality show First Dates appreciates, blind dating can prove to be problematic. Such problems were shown to be especially true when the date happens to be a raging kleptomaniac, a mime, or even your grandmother’s bridge partner. Wiseman’s had the Redgrave in hysterics with their brilliantly timed one-liners and carefully considered costumes. The inflatable Zimmer frame highlighted the director’s awareness of dramatic detail, which carried right through to the well crafted programme. The judges appreciated the breadth of students involved in the performance, including a number of notable junior cast members, suggesting a promising theatrical future for the House.

School House

Alan Grimaldi and the 183

In School House’s Alan Grimaldi and the 183 the audience discovered that you can get into Heaven via the back-reception office. A well thought-out set did a brilliant job of transporting us to a stereotypical, shabby office. There we found the jaded Read siblings, playing an underfunded angelic duo, who have the pleasure of telling unlucky visitors that their death was unscheduled and is now causing a whole lot of extra admin.

Alexei Joukovski’s outraged Alan Grimaldi, one such unlucky visitor, bounced nicely off the calm and collected angels, Barry and Sandra, and the small cast worked well together.

West Town In the Mood

West Town’s hilarious portrayal of Frank Gibbons’ In the Mood invited the audience to Jeanie’s chaotic cafe, struggling to survive with its poor hygiene, inferior cooking and power supply malfunctions. Imagine the worst of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and then add a mischievous deaf cat with toilet troubles. West Town had a notably large ensemble, featuring pupils from across the House with a sense of spirit shining through. The thoughtful use of staging, props and costumes had been well considered, whilst the lighting effectively aided transitions.

Holland’s House Hard Candy

Holland’s Hard Candy a fastpaced interview style comedy, was a strong, well chosen production featuring plenty of talent from across the House. Scenes were punchy with jokes well delivered, keeping the audience engaged as we progressed through the many managers of Banff Enterprises and the deterioration of poor Linda the secretary. The full theatre was used to good effect to emphasise the dramatic entrance of one interviewee, Bluetooth speaker in hand, which added an extra dimension to the performance. The cast and directors were creative in their portrayal of the many persuasive techniques used to acquire a job and costumes worked well across the board.

East Town

All I Really Need to Know I Learned by Being in a Bad Murder Mystery

East Town adopted the role of a bunch of lovable yet impossibly inept thespians in this play within a play. The metadrama emerges as we meet the motley and slightly dishevelled group about to be cast in a new play. As the Director grapples with caffeine withdrawal, arguments ensue between cast members. East Town cleverly broke the fourth wall as the reluctant narrator emerged from the audience to lecture about bad theatre, awful actors and long-suffering audiences. The judges also noted the effective use of blocking and carefully considered lighting that aided this performance.

The South Town Shook

Shook brought us to a classroom within a young offenders institution. Witty one-liners from the well-meaning prisoners quickly got the audience on side as the polished performances outlined the relationships and tensions within the prison. Moments of brutal, vulnerable honesty from the characters of Jonjo and Cain were skilful in abruptly changing the tone of the performance. Most poignant was the revelation in the final scenes that the hopeful Riyad, awaiting his imminent release from prison, had hurt another prisoner in self-defence and was no longer going to be released. The performers and directors really did justice to this well selected and challenging text, resulting in moments of magic on stage. The ending, a slow fade as Jonjo cradled the dummy baby to the eerie start of Eminem’s Stan was poignant and touching.

Oakeley’s House Bad Auditions

The Redgrave was filled to the brim with Oakeley’s House spirit during Bad Auditions. The theatre was decorated with posters featuring a cameo from Mr Simmons and there was even a recruitment drive for the Oakeley’s Casting Agency before the performance began. The audience could feel the exasperation radiating off Bea Willis’ casting director character as she dealt with a procession of painfully poor auditions, the likes of which included an Instagram influencer, an overworked mum of teens and even a blow-up cow/dinosaur. Performances were polished and jokes were delivered with great timing, ensuring the audience had a great time throughout and were sent off into the night still chuckling.

North Town

Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place: Scotch Mist

A solitary chair was centre stage as the audience took to their seats in anticipation of North Town’s dramatic offering. As the house lights went down, and the stage lights came up, there appeared Garth Marenghi, played by Ned Blench, to introduce the audience to the next 35 minutes of surreal comedy featuring a strange killer mist accompanied by the sound of bagpipes. Strong performances from the cast combined with a great selection of costumes, a host of prerecorded interview clips cleverly projected onto the stage, and even a surprise musical number featuring the singing talents of Hector Wright and Luke Laredo. A unique and impressive production from North Town!

Worcester House Tales of Worcester House

The audience was transported into the not too fictionalised world of Worcester House on Wednesday evening, where the play opened to two parents planning to use the boarding House as a cover for their criminal activity, whilst the girls started scraps at the inter-House hockey tournament. There was inventive fight choreography in the hockey battle sequences, with the whole cast involved in the sporting slugfest. The original script written by the directors was well balanced with College-specific jokes, comic characters and quick pacing, all of which combined to tell a story that had the audience laughing throughout.

Hallward’s House The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon

The famous fairy tales were turned on their heads in this fast-paced, rollicking ride as two narrators and several actors attempted to combine all 209 stories ranging from classics like Snow White and Cinderella to obscure fables such as The Devil’s Grandmother. Hallward’s pulled off the wild, free-form comedy with dramatic flair, even engaging the audience up the aisle as Dr Greene was drawn into the drama. There were many moments of directorial brilliance, audibly appreciated by the audience.

Moberly’s House Gavin and Stacey

The Moberly’s boys took us to the world of Gavin and Stacey. We followed the young couple over a Christmas period and the surprise news of a new job for Gav. Smithy was in tears at the thought of losing Gavlar, not to mention the romantic entanglements of the love triangle with Nessa and Dave. The accents were solid throughout, with the cast playing the knockabout comedy with great energy. Fantastic scenic input from Mr Catchpole also resulted in not one but two cars on stage. This was a feel-good show which left the audience laughing from start to finish.

Charlie Callander & Charlotte Withey

House Play Judges

House Play Winners

Best Preparation

Worcester House

Best Costume Design

Holland’s House

Technical Achievement

North Town

Best Staging

West Town

Choreography

Watson’s House

Artistic Achievement

North Town

Stage Presence

Millie Campbell (WoH), and Ellis Davies (MH)

Best Third Form Performance

Danny Boyle (WiH) and Jodie Byas (HLH)

Audience Appreciation

Oakeley’s House

Rising Star

Alex White (NT)

Best Supporting Actor in a Drama

Ethan Thompson (ST)

Best Actor in a Drama

Malachy O’Callaghan (ST)

Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy

Stella Pikhulya (HH)

Best Actor in a Comedy

Velvet Cook (HH)

Best Director

Olivia White and Elsa Wilkie (HH)

Best Comedy

Hallward’s House

Best Drama

The South Town

Best Production

The South Town

The Summer Arts

Evening began with impressive performances of concertos by Naomi Chung, Sam Williams, Ella Robson and Henry Gittings, The orchestral music filling the Chapel for the Summer Serenade.

The steady drizzle did little to dampen the spirits of both audiences and performers during the drama and dance performances in the Quad. There were standout monologue performances from Rowan Read and Sephie Alexander who commanded the audience’s attention with their pieces. There was also a flash mob to Hamilton’s One Shot organised by Monique Konje, and featuring the rapping skills of a number of students who spanned Years 9 to 12. The Watson’s House dance team reprised their successful House Dance performance, and Monique Konje also performed an impressive solo dance. The Percival Library was the stage for engaging poetry and prose readings by the Creative Writing

Group and impressive musical performances by the Cliftones and the Flute and Clarinet Ensembles. Attendees also had the opportunity to peruse stunning artwork by the art scholars in the Crypt, support the Charities Committee in their Nearly-New Uniform Sale and enjoy a delicious ice cream. The evening continued in the Chapel with further outstanding concerto movements from Magnus Allen, Konrad Kurczynski and Sophie Chung. The night was rounded off perfectly with an hour of jazz in the Crypt. All in all, this was a beautiful evening to celebrate the arts, in spite of the rain!

Rhian Orzel Head of Drama