This year’s Shakespeare School’s Festival (SSF) performance of The Tempest by members of the Sixth Form was literally ‘out-of-this-world’. Mr Tim Clarke and Ms Drusilla Harris put on a truly cinematic spectacle that brought a breath of fresh air to one of Shakespeare’s most musical and mythical plays. Watching this exhilarating version of The Tempest was almost like watching an intricate painting burst into life. The cast and creative team totally transported the audience to a brand new, exciting world of adventure.
Set on a distant planet, in the future, where the women have taken over, the original masculine dominance in The Tempest was overturned as all the high status characters were played as women. The split personality of Prospera highlighted the constant battle between revenge and forgiveness which runs throughout the course of the play. The actors brought a powerful intensity to the role of ‘Vengeful’ Prospera, which was carefully complimented by the delicate sensitivity of the ‘Forgiving Prospera’. Both girls were thoughtful and prevailing in their roles, which remained onstage for the majority of the play.
The multiple performers making up the character of Ariel brought a new meaning to the term ‘ensemble’. In a role that hardly ever left the stage, the fourteen Ariels embodied unique and vibrant physicality to present this otherworldly spirit. The actors in this role were required to be constantly switched-on and focussed in the wings and they achieved such immaculate execution in a manner that appeared almost effortless to the audience. The SSF committee remarked, “The technical rehearsal by St John’s was the best example of what an ensemble production means. Everyone was fully committed to telling the story.”
This year marks the School’s sixth year of participation in the Shakespeare Schools Festival, which is the world’s largest youth drama festival; in 2018, over 30,000 children from over 1,000 schools took part. Performing alongside our version of The Tempest this year at the Mumford Theatre in Cambridge was Ridgefield Primary School who executed a commanding production of Macbeth, as well as Swavesey Village College who cranked up the comedy with their ‘music festival inspired’ interpretation of Twelfth Night.
