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DRAMA 7
Bancroft’s Players at the Edinburgh Fringe
Jaya Rana, U6N
Last summer, a group of upper school students
had the opportunity to attend and perform in the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Fringe Festival is the
world’s largest and most famous arts festival taking
place every year from the 1 to the 31 August. The
Bancroft’s Players put on a production of Frank
Wedekind’s
Spring Awakening
. This play is famous
for its revelations about social oppression; although
the original centres on 18th century Germany,
the message it sends is universal and timeless.
An ambitious play to choose! Our director Ms
Middleton embarked on creating this show with less
than a week of rehearsal time.
After a very intensive seven days of rehearsing we packed our bags
and headed for King’s Cross. Six hours of enjoying the beautiful
countryside views later, we arrived in Edinburgh. The city was
abuzz from the moment we stepped foot off the train! Every corner
we turned we were approached by comedians, actors and singers
encouraging us to see their show. Considering there were over
53,000 performances and we only had 13 days, we had to pick and
choose. My personal favourite was a show called
Flight
, which was
an immersive experience in which 20 of the 25-minute production
were in pitch black, the experience being entirely auditory. We also
went to see a thrilling production of
Antigone
in which the infamous
antagonist King Creon was instead portrayed as Queen Creon,
something which I felt added an interesting and innovative dynamic
to the play. We performed our play every night (bar one) and spent an
hour a day handing out flyers, something which definitely taught us
how to receive rejection! Fortunately, it paid off as we had a decently
full audience every night, which was very encouraging.
As we had a fair amount of free time, a group of us decided to go
to the Edinburgh dungeons which was very enjoyable, We also saw
Trump: The Musical
… something I don’t think I can ever un-see!
Overall, from our nightly renditions of
Teenager in Love
backstage to
spending hours every night singing and playing the guitar together
in our flat, I think it’s fair to say that this trip was an unbelievable
experience and something none of us will forget.
Wendy and Peter
: Lower School Flying High
Cast members of the Junior School
Production were literally flying high
during performances of Ella Hickson’s
Wendy and Peter
. Pupils from Thirds
to Lower Fourth approached the
production with enthusiasm and,
according to the Director Ms Elie
Middleton, were “highly creative,
not to mention hugely entertaining.”
Ella Hickson retains many familiar elements
from J M Barrie’s
Peter Pan
: the flight to
Neverland from the nursery; Hook’s feud
with the crocodile; even the audience being
called upon to revive a dying Tinkerbelle by
demonstrating their belief in fairies. It also
gives a real 21st century slant to the story.
Hickson’s retelling of the story places Wendy
(Jaya Robertson) firmly in the centre of the
action. She leaves behind the girl conforming
to society’s stereotypes to develop into
a determined young woman who knows
her own mind and rejects the role Peter
assigns to her as “mother” of the Lost Boys.
Together with a TOWIE-esque Tinkerbelle
(Georgia Moncur) and the feisty Tiger Lily
(Isabella Erdem), Wendy demonstrates real
“girl power” by defeating Hook. Lucy Joyce
gave a mature and nuanced performance
as a disturbingly creepy Hook, while Josie
Grimsell as Peter, clearly revelled in her
opportunities to fly. Jaya was well supported
by Olly Hughes as John Darling, who
conforms to the Edwardian expectations
for his gender, and Dylan Karunathilake as a
questioning Michael.
This production showed true company
spirit with the cast demonstrating tight
ensemble playing particularly among the
Lost Boys and Hook’s pirate crew. Mr Aron
Whitbread together with his team, should
be commended on the fantastic pirate ship
which was an evocative background to the
action. Congratulations to all those involved,
including the hardworking backstage crew
and those members of staff who assisted in
the flying scenes. All elements seamlessly
combined to make a truly magical show.