Rapport du projet de théâtre – Yvonne Finnan
If we can’t go to the theatre let the theatre come to us!
This exciting project found its roots during our first online parents’ evening, when an S1 ENB parent shared her experience of enjoying plays from The National Theatre’s archive with her daughter, from the comfort of home during lockdown. From this, the project started to take shape and we are grateful to The Community Fund in EEB4 for making our dream of bringing quality productions into our classes.
As Oscar Wilde once said, ‘I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.’ Now, whatever you view is on Oscar Wilde’s assertion you can’t but agree that this year has been challenging for our students. We have spent parts of the year in lockdown or on rotation experiencing online teaching and learning, and have been deprived of many of our cultural activities. To mitigate some of this loss in our school, The EEB4 Community Fund supported the English Department’s theatre project ‘If we can’t go to the theatre let the theatre come to us!’ Since then we have been enjoying wonderful performances from The National Theatre in London in our classes. Some of our classes have already enjoyed Peter Pan, Treasure Island, Jane Eyre, Medea, Frankenstein, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Wonder.land.
The good news is that this project has just begun and we can look forward to many more opportunities to see more exciting plays this year.
Here is selection of work inspired by some of our online trips to the theatre.
Treasure Island: Review
Recently we had the opportunity to watch Bryon Lavery’s interpretation of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, performed by the NationalTheatre in London, and we would like to share our opinion on this experience.
Treasure Island is an action-packed mystery adventure, an adventure through which the young Jim Hawkins gets to know herself.
The play as a whole is definitely impressive, the actors played their roles beautifully, the costumes and the action all came together to make for an amazing way to experience this classic.
However, the most impressive part of the whole experience was the stagecraft and special effects, the stage spun and rose during different parts of the play, and the different sets had distinct and recognizable personalities that really left us in awe.
Another part of the story I enjoyed personally was the story’s close link to classic pirate tropes, as an inspiring writer, I found it fascinating to see the origins of many of these tropes, and how they’ve evolved now in the modern day.
In conclusion, the play was near flawless, everything about it was spectacular, and we really enjoyed getting the opportunity to see this play.
By Vlad, Joosep and Andro in S3 Enrichment English
Sea Shanties
Come all ye sailors from the vast sea,
Release the anchors and get ready,
Open the map hoping to see,
A fine new land to conquer thee,
Come all ye sailors from the vast sea,
Release the anchors and get ready.
By Lucie, Rebecca and Malika in S3 Enrichment English
Hear all ye Northmen
The dark doubloons say,
Take the gold from the source,
Let blood fill the bay.
Chorus- Ready your axes,
Starve your hounds,
Men of Norseca,
Scallywags abound.
Shark bait and serpents,
Whose blood must be split,
Erase their temples
Ruin everything.
Repeat chorus
By Vald and Andro in S3 Enrichment English
Come along pirate lads, come and sing along,
If our ship sinks, we’ll pray to the monk
If our ship sinks, we’ll soon run out of plonk
Come along pirate lads, come and sing along.
By Bori and Amalia in S3 Enrichment English
Come along ye buccaneers
Who live on the sea
Bring a bottle of rum
And sing along the way
You give me your efforts
I’ll give you the pay
And we’ll all sing together
I’m Long John Silver
The master of the sea!
By Amalia and Katarina in S3 Enrichment English