Members of the Sixth Form took part in this year's Shakespeare Schools Festival (SSF) with their performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and produced a droll and exuberant play featuring ample wordplay which underscored the nonsensical mischief of the plot. Whilst the world was in the grip of Covid-19 an extremely talented group of Sixth Formers, under the guidance of Mr Clarke, Ms Harris, Mr Hawkins and Mr Evans, defied the odds and put on a St John’s first; a live-streamed performance which was enjoyed by audience literally around the world.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play by William Shakespeare that follows four young lovers: Lysander, Hermia, Helena and Demetrius. Egeus wants his daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius. Hermia does not want to marry him. She loves another man named Lysander. Hermia and Lysander decide to run away. Demetrius follows them. Helena, Hermia's best friend, is in love with Demetrius. She follows him. All four become lost in the woods near Athens. As they make it to the woods, we are introduced to Puck, Oberon and Titania, who are currently in battle over a small changeling boy. In an attempt to steal the changeling boy, Oberon devises a plan to make Titania fall in love with something, so he has a distraction to enable him to swoop in and take the boy. Titania falls in love with Bottom, the most ridiculous of the Athenian craftsmen, whose head Puck has mockingly transformed into that of a donkey. This creates a chain reaction of events that tell a funny and thought-provoking story and a strong performance from everyone involved.
One of the Sixth Form performing as the mischievous Puck exclaimed, ‘I really enjoyed playing Puck because of the creativity and the way that we got the show done in these circumstances. As you could imagine it was different performing to a camera. You had to come up the stage and face it much more than you would normally. I was so thrilled when I got my part and really excited to do it with my friend. Performing as a double act was difficult at the beginning but got much easier. Every rehearsal we got more and more coordinated and by the performance, we were exactly in time.’ One audience member who watched via the live stream commented’ ‘what I loved most about this performance is that every single member of the cast fully embodied their roles even if they were far in the background or if they were right at the front of the stage. This interpretation of The Dream was one of the most ensemble driven shows I have seen in a long time and this is a credit to all involved. The commitment onstage was of the highest quality and this added to the comedy, intensity and mystery of the narrative. The students embraced the spirit of Stanislavki’s famous quote: ‘There are no small parts, only small actors’.’
Head of Drama, Mr Tim Clarke, commented, "With this year’s performance being unlike anything the School has ever produced before the ensemble have been the working machine behind this piece and have done excellently with their team work and communication. Everyone reacted maturely and with flexibility to not being able to have a live audience and the whole team have proved to the staff that they are able to adapt and develop their performance 'on the go' and still have fun whilst doing so."
For more information about the Shakespeare Schools Festival: https://www.shakespeareschools.org/