Tag Archive for: drama

The first drama productions of the year took place last Sunday night as our youngest actors took to the BSR stage for the annual Form I & II plays. Many of the young cast members were “threading the boards” for the first time and these short plays tend to serve as great stepping stones to greater dramatic challenges in the months or perhaps years ahead.

This year’s Form I play was a medieval comedy called ‘A Good Knight’s Work’ by Allan Mackey. The young cast were full of energy on the night as three brave knights battled each other, fire-breathing dragons and a bloodthirsty executioner for the hand of the fair princess. There were plenty of laughs and the odd groan at the brilliant terrible puns.

The Form II play was an adaptation of the Oscar Wilde short story’ The Canterville Ghost’. Once again there were plenty of laughs as Sir Simon, the 300 year old ghost haunting Canterville Castle, grows increasingly exasperated at the new American owners who refuse to be frightened by him and his ghostly companions.

Well done to all the pupils involved (listed below) and to the staff (Mr Stewart, Mr Boobbyer, Mr Jones and Mr O’Shaughnessy) for directing.

Form I CastForm II Cast
Chamberlain – Georgia DobbsMr Otis – Finn
Servant – Henry van den BerghMrs Otis – Giacomo Borrilo
Trumpeter – Hugo BellewWashington – Wilfred Hui
Lord Lilly – Seán HennessyVirginia – Alice Hutchon
Lady Lilly – Laurence SunStars – Jason Otolorin
Lord Fitzroy – Max HeidenfeldStripes – Elijah Kim
Lady Fitzroy – Mena SweetmanSir Simon – Harry Casey
King Ferd – Christabella Osereme LynchThe Spirit – Claire Higgins
Queen Maud – Oyindamola OniThe Skeleton – Merida Zhang
Princess Adeline – Maureen DengNarrators: Finn Breatnach, Amy-Anne Newell and Divyaansh Bhardwaj
Executioner – Andrea Beggy
Magician – Charlie Dunleavy
Sir Blufus – Ivor Guinness
Sir Angus – Winnifred Cawley-Comerford
Sir Richard Trueheart – Eric Wang

This year’s Junior Play, featuring a cast of pupils from Forms I, II and III, is Guests of the Nation a short play based on the Frank O’Connor short story of the same name, adapted for the stage by Michael James Ford. The play takes place in and around a remote cottage in West Galway and is set against the backdrop of the Irish War of Independence, over 100 years ago. The cast of seven includes the Woman (the owner of the house), Noble, Boneparte, Donovan and Feeney (Irish servicemen) and Hawkins and Belcher (captured British soldiers).

Hawkins  – Jack-Francis McKeon

NobleFerdia Murray

BonaparteRebecca Flanagan

BelcherAmy-Anne Newell

Jeremiah DonovanAlice McCarthy

WomanAnna Rose MacManus

FeenyHugo Russell Connolly

The Irish War of Independence was a guerilla war fought between 1919 – 1921 between forces of the Irish Republic and the British Army, the Royal Irish Constabulary and their auxiliaries such as the so-called ‘black and tans’. Both civil disobedience and extreme violence on both sides almost brought the functioning of the country to a standstill. Ambushes and reprisal killings were a gruesome hallmark of the conflict as it became ever more entrenched.

Frank O’Connor (1903-1966) was from Cork and had first-hand experience of the conflict he writes about with such humanity in this piece. Guests of the Nation was the title story in a collection of short stories published in 1931. It is considered a classic of the form in Irish writing and for years was a favourite element of the Inter. Cert. English course (forerunner to the current Junior Cycle). Michael James Ford is a writer and performer based in Dublin.

The cast have been preparing since the beginning of term and performed for an audience for the first time last night (a preview for our Form I pupils). The two main performances take place tonight (Friday, March 3rd 2023) and tomorrow night (Saturday, March 4th, 2023) with both performances beginning at 7pm. Parents welcome.

The play is directed by Mr Ronan Swift and Mr Humphrey Jones.

Senior Play: Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward

a review by Hannah Bergmann, Fifth Form. Photographs by the Reverend Daniel Owen

November 10th, 11th, 12th 2022

As soon as the BSR was filled with pupils, teachers, and parents, you could feel the positive excitement and anticipation of the audience for the upcoming play, the first full production since 2019. The stage had been transformed into an old-fashioned-looking room waiting for the first actor to appear. When the lights were turned off and the first tunes of the music appeared the spotlight was directed onto the centre of the stage, making the audience curious about what was going to happen in the next two hours.

From flirtatious ghosts to flying cucumber sandwiches, it was all there. Blithe Spirit is about Charles Condomine, played by Nikolai Foster, whose ex-wife, the ghost Elvira, (Isabel Warnock) is conjured up by the experienced medium Madame Arcati (Phoebe Landseer). This evoked a very well-expressed jealousy in Ruth Condomine (Emily McCarthy) as the current wife of Mr. Condomine and Isabel, relishing the discomfort she has created coming back from the afterlife. What followed was a darkly funny competition between two women, one dead, one living.

The whole cast showed great acting skills from the catchy “Yes, Madam” of the maid Edith, played by Anna Naumenko, to Emily McCarthy who conveyed the emotions of Ruth very well so that the audience could feel how jealous and outraged she was. But especially Phoebe Landseer captivated the audience. The entire room seem to engage in the play by laughing at the jokes which showed that the whole evening was thoroughly entertaining. One moment everyone will remember is probably the scene where Madame Arcati threw a cucumber sandwich into the crowd which caused great amusement.  Nikolai Foster was a great fit for the central character of the play, Charles Condomine, because the audience could really feel his emotions such as the relief he presented in the end when both women disappeared

The visual aspect was provided by the fantastic costumes which transported the audience back to the 1940s in London. While the women were dressed in beautiful long dresses one of them an elegant black one, worn by Violet Bradman (Diana Doenhoff), the men were dressed up in noble suits such as the one worn by Lorne Walsh who played Dr George Bradman. Towards the end of the play a mysterious scene caught the crowd’s attention as the shutters of the background rattled fearfully. But who had opened and closed them? This will forever be a secret.

The whole performance was a great success and everyone noticed the effort that was put into the production of this entertaining and enjoyable play. Therefore, a big thank you goes out to the cast as well as Messrs Ronan Swift and Tristan Clarke who directed the whole play. It was a great way to spend a Saturday night! 

 

Charles Condomine: Nikolai Foster

Ruth Condomine: Emily McCarthy

Elvira Condomine: Isabel Warnock

Madame Arcati: Phoebe Landseer

George Bradman: Lorne Walsh

Violet Bradman: Diana Doenhoff

Edith: Anna Naumenko

Daphne: Alice McCarthy

Lighting and Sound: Messrs Julian Girdham and Ronan Swift

Backdrop: Ms Lynn Murphy, Ms Derarca Cullen and TY Pupils

Costumes: Ms Elaine Healy, Ms Megan Kilpatrick and Abbey Costume Hire

Props and Staging: Ms Elaine Healy, Ms Megan Kilpatrick and Abbey Costume Hire

Stage Hands: Alice McCarthy, Lexi Hunter and Josefien Hutchinson

Artwork: Georgia Goodbody

Directors: Messrs Ronan Swift and Tristan Clarke

 

The Form Plays returned to the BSR on the evening of Sunday October 16th in the tried and trusted double-bill format. The Form I play, directed by Mr. McCarthy and Mr Girdham, was Red Hot Cinders, a version (in verse) of the classic Cinderella tale. A cast of ten young thespians elicited gasps and laughter galore, mixed with pathos and tension, aided and abetted by a chorus of booers and hissers. There was magic and malice (fairy godmother and wicked stepmother), no expense was spared in the costume department (ah, the beautiful ugly sisters), and the dance sequences were executed with terpsichorean excellence (prince/fair lady and herald/guest). All was presented by two tip-top leathered comperes. And they all lived happily ever after. Bravo to all!

Form II offered us The Poe Plays, a series of modern adaptations of eerie Edgar Allan Poe stories set in secondary school surroundings. Messrs. Clarke and Swift directed and there was a nice balance between the slightly chilling and the downright hilarious. Scroll down for an album of photos from both performances with thanks to resident photographer Rev. Owen.

Meanwhile, this year’s Senior Play will be performed in the week that we return after half term. Continuing a theme of the seemingly supernatural Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit will be the first full senior offering since Grease in 2019. There’s a lot to achieve in a short space of time! 

As for other future plans, there will be a Junior Play in February with auditions on return after Christmas and before then no doubt some sort of Christmas Entertainment will be cobbled together as an end of term, feelgood send off. 

Science teacher (and closet musical theatre fan) Humphrey Jones reviews last weekend’s performance of Grease.

I turned forty a few months back. Almost exactly one year earlier the movie Grease reached a similar milestone: it has aged far better than I have. The music still remains as catchy as ever and the dialogue is still relevant (to all audiences); it remains witty, more than a little bit rude, cheeky and full of innuendo. I have particularly fond memories of watching Grease as a young lad and aspiring to be as cool as Danny Zuko. I never was (and sadly never will be). The prospect of watching a school performance of this well-loved musical, I must admit, made me a tad nervous. How would a young cast, from Forms I right through to VI, do the classic songs, dialogue and dance routines any sort of justice? However, as it turned out, there was no need to doubt them.

The College production of Grease delighted and entertained. Performed over three cold November nights the young cast brought huge enthusiasm and energy to the stage. They sang their hearts out, danced with gusto and delivered their lines with perfect dramatic and comedic timing. As a full cast, they did remarkably well. My biggest disappointment with the original movie was that some of the characters were almost too cool, too gritty and were old beyond their years (the actors, of course, were much older than the characters they portrayed). The younger cast in this production softened the story a little which, in my opinion, was a good thing. I’m not sure if that was deliberate or not but deserved credit to the team of directors (Ronan Swift, Geraldine Malone Brady and Tristan Clarke) for nurturing the clearly natural talent of the young cast.

And what talent! The lead actors, Emily McCarthy (Sandy) and Marcus O’Connor (Danny), were both excellent. Emily’s powerful yet melodic voice perfectly suited the role and her performance of ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’ was memorable. Marcus’s performance was natural and nuanced and it was clear he had studied Travolta’s Danny. They worked really well together, particularly as a singing partnership. It was hard to believe that they’re in Form III and IV respectively. No doubt we will see them on stage again in the coming years.

Jack Hayes (Kenickie), Abigail O’Brien (Rizzo), Songyon Oh (Marty), Peter Taylor (Doody), Leo Moreau (Sonny) and Sakhile Khumalo (Roger) were all perfectly cast and gave brilliant vocal performances. Imogen Casey (Frenchy) caught the naivety of her character superbly while Stella Jacobs (Jan) was energetic throughout (she even managed to do some cartwheels during the final number). Phoebe Grennell (Patty) was cast in her role just two weeks before the first performance but you would have never guessed; she was convincing and confident whenever she was on stage. Oscar Yan (Teen Angel) brought the house down with his rendition of ‘Beauty School Dropout’ (I still love the line “Missed your midterms and flunked shampoo”). The surprise packages were Alex Hinde (Eugene) and Nelly Ploner (Cha-Cha) who momentarily commanded the stage during their “dance” number (some say Alex may never recover). Nelly, it must be said, took a relatively minor character in the original production and brought her front and centre. As a whole, the school dance scene was brilliantly done and huge credit to Fearghal Curtis and Edel Shannon too for their clever and tight choreography of the hand-jive (and other dance numbers). All these young actors, it must be said, were supported by a strong ensemble of would-be ‘Pink Ladies’ and ‘T-Birds’. The whole cast performed with zest and without inhibition – again credit to the team of directors in facilitating this.

The cast were accompanied by an extremely slick live band and looked every bit the part thanks to Karen Hennessey and her team in the costume room. The set design was minimal with the colourful digital backdrops, projected onto the large screen behind the stage, more than adequately setting the scenes. The Art Department, in particular Lynn Murphy and her pupils, prepared some additional props including the famous Grease Lightning car. There were many more individuals involved in the production, far too numerous to mention here.

All in all, everyone involved in Grease should be extremely proud of their efforts. They took a challenging musical, with challenging themes, and more than did it justice. Everything about Grease was excellent: the music, the dancing, the singing, the acting. There have been some unforgettable College musicals in recent years (Oklahoma and Guys & Dolls come to mind) but Grease will live long in the memory for me, for many reasons. Vince Fontaine (played by Guy Fitzgibbon) famously says in GreaseIt doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it’s what you do with your dancin’ shoes”. This young cast clearly worked those dancin’ shoes: they were all winners!

Humphrey Jones (Teacher & closet musical theatre fan)

Elizabeth Hart, Form I, reflects on her experience in this year’s Junior Play.

The Junior Play this year was called The Happy Journey by Thornton Wilder. Emily McCarthy, Kate Higgins, Cameron McKinley, Wolfgang Romanowski, Malachy Murphy and I were the actors. Emily played the part of the mum, Cameron as the dad, Malachy as the son Arthur, and I played the daughter, Caroline. Wolfgang was “the stage manager” and Kate was Beulah, my big sister. This play was about a family going on a trip to visit the older sister in a neighbouring state of the USA. Later we learn Beulah had given birth to a baby, but the baby had died soon after it was born.

The Happy Journey operates as a play within a play (almost), so we all pretended to be actors performing. At the start we pretended to be preparing for the play and Wolfgang was telling us all to get ready. The only props we had in the play were four chairs which were our ‘car’. The rest were imaginary so we talked to imaginary people, pointed at imaginary billboards and Cameron turned an imaginary steering wheel.

We had about 3 weeks to prepare for the play and, at the start, it felt kind of relaxed. As the days went on, it got more serious as we got our costumes and learned the script by heart. Near the night of performing it became tenser and the practices became a lot longer.

On Thursday a couple of people came to watch the dress rehearsal and it was the first real audience we had. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but we didn’t mess up our lines or any stage directions.

Friday came and we were all nervous. When people started to come in there was loads of noise and suddenly I got really nervous. When I walked out on stage my legs were shaking and it was more muscle memory than anything else that got me through to the end. It is a short play so it passed by very quickly. The actual performance only felt like 5 minutes!

Saturday night came and I wasn’t as nervous as before, but I wasn’t exactly relaxed. We went through the play and when I said my last line and ran off the stage it felt really good. When Emily and Kate came off, we went to the front of the stage, took our bow and we had finished the play completely.

Being in the play was a very good experience as it made me more confident in speaking in front of a crowd and was a bit of fun. Our thanks to Mr Swift and Mr Jameson for directing it.

Below are a series of photographs, taken by Rev Owen, from the performance.

The performances of this year’s Senior Play, The Nose, take place on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week in the BSR, starting every evening at 7pm. The Nose is a satirical short story by Nikolai Gogol written during his time living in St. Petersburg. During this period, Gogol’s works were primarily focused on surrealism and the grotesque, with a romantic twist. Written between 1835 and 1836, The Nose tells the story of a St. Petersburg official whose nose leaves his face and develops a life of its own…this version was adapted for stage by Tom Swift and first staged in Dublin in 2008. This year’s play is directed by Ronan Swift.

Cast

  • Major Kovalyov – Caoimhe Cleary
  • The Nose/Smirnov – Daniel Ayoade
  • Father – Eile Ni Chianain
  • Podtochina – Oda Michel
  • Olga, her daughter – Charlotte Moffitt
  • Governor Rachkin – Maybelle Rainey
  • Katerina, his daughter – Dimitro Kasianenko
  • Ivan, the barber – Avouka Assebian
  • Praskovya, his wife – Sveva Ciofani
  • Policeman – Elise Williams
  • Small Ads Clerk – Margot Aleixandre
  • Reporter – Aiyuni O’Grady
  • Surgeon – Sinead Cleary
  • Theatre Nurse – Raphaela Ihuoma