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DRAMA
THE DEMON

THE DEMON
HEADMISTRESS
Lisa Jackson, our English teacher from Australia,
decided that The Demon Headmistress would be a
perfect vehicle for the Lower School when she saw
the House Drama competition in October. Stuart House
had changed the ‘master’ of the title to a ‘mistress’ in their
eerie and dramatic extract and Lisa felt it would be very
satisfying to explore the whole play.
Mimi Gaston-Kennedy once again took on the part of
the evil, hypnotic Headmistress and dominated the hall as
she perched on the Head’s chair wearing dark glasses.
Her power was further emphasised thorough smoke effects
and red lighting and a whirly projection on the rear wall that
appeared whenever she hypnotised the school pupils.
Resistant to her powers were a small group of friends
played by Thomas Bunzl, Joel Lewis, George Woodhams
and Emily Hindle. They were literally the life force of the
story as their spirits had not been crushed by the system.
They were worried when a newcomer, Dinah, played by
Chloe St Clair Stannard and Rose Paine on alternate
performances, came to live with them To begin with, Dinah
didn’t realise these friends were any different to other
pupils because they did not initially let her in on their
secret. She was susceptible to the hypnotic powers of the
Head teacher and the group felt they couldn’t trust her.
There were some lovely scenes set at home where the
children listened as Dinah trotted out the familiar school
propaganda. Elizabeth Skinner and Sarah Lewis, who
shared the part of the mother, were very convincing and
amusing as they listened with approval to the new girl’s
praise of the school.
It soon turned out, however, that Dinah was not as
obedient as she had first appeared and together with the
other children, she ultimately set about bringing down the
corrupt regime and exposing the Headmistress as a fraud.
Our Headmaster would like to add at this point that this
play was in no way an allegory about our very own St.
Dunstan’s.
Interspersed with all the family scenes and school
scenes were interludes starring a TV celebrity, Eddie Hare.
This subplot was important because Eddie’s TV
programme was a favourite with everyone and a powerful
place to be seen by millions of viewers. The exposure of
the Headmistress was accomplished on this show. Archie
La Terriere was excellent as the nasty, tacky TV host. He
performed with enormous energy and certainly enjoyed
squishing custard pies into the faces of his unsuspecting
game-show guests.
All in all skilful performances coupled with very
controlled movement sequences ensured that the story
moved with great clarity and pace. A large cast was
involved and everyone contributed with excellent
concentration. It was a production that Lisa Jackson should
be proud of.
RZA
Venetian Twins
DRAMA
To Venice, two cheeses, too confusing?
Imagine being an identical twin. What would it be like
if your twin were the opposite of you in every way?
Imagine that where you are courteous, brave,
chivalrous; he is a whimpering coward. Now imagine that
the population of Verona thinks that you are your twin.
This is the cruel fate meted out to Tonino – played by
Chris Olivares-Chandler – in this year’s senior production
The Venetian Twins. Zanetto, his buffoon of a brother –
played by Edward Brody – crashes through the Italian
streets leaving a trail of destruction that always threatens
to end in tragedy.
The conceit of the identical twins was a favourite of
Shakespeare. And as in The Comedy of Errors,
confusion reigns supreme. This eighteenth century Italian
piece by Gordoni explores the comical potentials of
mistaken identities in full. Chris and Edward’s convincing
performances kept the audience guessing and just as
confused as the bewildered members of the supporting
cast.
Andrew Michael’s Lelio stomped around the stage in
a gusty, deliciously overblown and crowd-seducing
performance. The two female leads were shared over
the three nights: Gwennie, Alex, Danielle and Fay all
skilfully lead us through the heartaches and flights of
love denied and achieved. We loved to hate Fongphu
Tran’s slimy Pancrazio and Zach Cahsin’s playing of
Florindo and Natasha Nkonde’s Colombina also deserve
special mention. The supporting cast – with a sprinkling
of enjoyable cameos – kept the laughs coming and the
pace high.
Modern music was undoubtedly the winning formula
over the three nights of the show’s run. The programme
promised ‘Twentieth century reflections on the main
obsessions of the characters – love, sex and money’,
and that was exactly what we got: classic songs such as
Diamonds are Forever proved a light-hearted
commentary on the desires being burned out on stage.
The music was directed from the piano by Mr Gobey and
the jazz trio gave the evening a winning contemporary
edge. The singers – creatively directed and
choreographed by Rania Jumaily – were outstanding
from the opening Going to the Chapel right through to
the final chorus of There may be trouble ahead.
The Due Formaggi pub formed
the centrepiece for the stunning
set, designed by Phil Newman.
We were truly transported to
eighteenth century Italy: to the
winding streets, the emotional
intensity, the humour. The twin
directors, Mrs Allen and Nadia
Messina negotiated the comic
thoroughfares and emotional culde-sacs
with well-paced
assurance. The show had a
Mrs Allen

DRAMA
satisfying cohesion.
All is – inevitably – revealed at the end. Cheaters are
discovered and lovers reunited. Whether you enjoyed to
‘boo’ Fonghu, to laugh with and at Edward, or to sigh
and gasp with the lovers, this lively production certainly
gave the audience what it had promised. ‘The Venetian
Twins’ was an entertaining and comic reflection on those
universal desires: love, sex and money.
NJA
LOWER SCHOOL
HOUSE DRAMA
This competition came very early in the school year
when our Year 7 pupils were very new to the
Senior School. It provided them with an excellent
opportunity to get to know pupils in the year above and
for all the lower school to demonstrate their acting
talents. For the Year 11 directors this was the first time
they took on the responsibility of finding a suitable play,
organising the cast and making a production of their
own.
The plays were a wonderful selection of contrasting
pieces.
Forder began the evening with a play written by two
Year 11 pupils, Gabby Heard and Nicole Efthymiou. Who
shot Michael Jackson? was a who dunnit with a
difference – mainly because it turned out that nobody
dunnit as PC Pressley, played by Joe Twinn, discovered.
His Elvis Preseley impersonation was very convincing
and the play was full of similar comic invention. The cast
was a super ensemble consisting of Robert Okpuru Ella
Morrison-Derbyshire, Corbin McKenzie, Rose Paine,
Dom Cottrelli,Rosemary Anrude, Nicola Marshall, Tim
Smith and Tuku Barbaros. Rachel Whitely, as Madame
Fifi, was particularly bold and outrageous and won the
prize of Best Character Performance. Direction was by
Lucy Jones and Sarah Keltie with assistance from
Michael Lee.
Meeting the playwright
Peter Nichols
One of the outstanding highlights of being in the
A level Lower Sixth drama group was
definitely our meeting with the writer of A day
in the Death of Joe Egg, Peter Nichols. He very kindly
agreed to invite the whole set to his house when we
contacted him with questions about his West End
production starring Eddie Izzard and Victoria
Hamilton. It was fascinating to hear about all the
previous productions, see photos and hear his
opinions of all the different casts and directors there
have been over the years. We saw aspects of the
play in a completely new light and felt immensely
grateful to be allowed such personal contact with
such a superb writer.
Hecker House followed with two short pieces by Ann
Cartwright entitled One – Audition and Two – Us directed
by Emma Kerr. These plays allowed lots of opportunities
for Laura Romer-Ormiston, Newcombe Edwards, Anne
Nelson, Bella Amin, Java Sivam, Olivia Mackay, Janine
Robson and Lucian Howells to play very naturalistic
characters. Hassan Kadhim proved most effective as Jay
and won Best Supporting Charcacter for his portrayal of
a cynical would-be actor.
Stuart House chose a strong piece that they adapted
slightly to make The Demon Headmistress instead of
Headmaster by Gill Cross. This piece was directed by
James Jones, David Lessore and Charlie Fairless with
assistance from Tom Neenan. Mimi Gaston-Kennedy
was very enigmatic and spooky as the Headmistress and
she was supported by a highly disciplined cast consisting
of Reiss Simmonds, Amy Burnell, Alice Sperring,
Clodagh McGuire, Archie La Terriere, Joel Lewis and
Chris Morgan. Chloe St Clair-Stannard acted the girl who
rebelled against the system with particular force and
thereby won the award of Best Actress.
The Best Production Award went to the final play of
the evening, The Good Clown and The Bad Clown by
Renata Allen. Here was a cast of thousands but the
director, Hanna Retallack, worked extremely hard to
bring out the most from the excellent cast. A trio of four
wicked devils played by Cathy Villeneau, Natalie Zak,
Tara Facey and Anna McDowell won a special prize from
the adjudicator for their excellent comic ensemble
playing. Emily Hindle was clear and commanding as the
narrator and Greg Kerr, Mark Watson, Sam Brown, Katie
Emilianov, Devika Woods, William Bott, Anne
Katchinska, Yore Okopbia, Josh Biele, Jamie Harding,
Rhys Fisher-McKnight and Matthew Clarke were all
delightful in their different roles. Best Actors award of the
evening, however, was won by the two outstanding
clowns, George Woodhams and Thomas Bunzl. The
adjudicator, Phil McCaul, who visited us just before he
started his West End run in the musical, Chicago,
provided excellent judgement on the evening’s offerings
and the entire event was a great success.
MIDDLE SCHOOL
HOUSE DRAMA
Four plays performed by members of Year 9 and 10
and directed by pupils from the Lower Sixth
provided us with an excellent evening’s
entertainment in the Lent term.
Forder House chose a highly dramatic and
challenging piece by Steven Berkoff adapted from Franz
Kafka’s story, Metamorphosis. The directors, Gwennie
von Einsiedel and Philip Touska, succeeded in drawing
superb choreographed acting from Marc Holmes, Jack
Retallack, Dan Wiseman and Robin von Einsiedel. Helen
Touska as Greta and Jo Redler as the mother were

singled out for the joint award of Best Supporting
Actresses but the entire cast were the worthy recipients
of the award for Best Ensemble.
Hecker House presented an episode of the popular
TV series Frasier, adapted for the stage by sixth former
Edward Brody. The director, Tom Nicholson,
unfortunately encountered enormous problems with
illness among the cast and at the last minute Calum
Sida-Murray had to step into the breach to take on the
part of Frasier with very little notice indeed. Tom Heaton,
Sarah Lewis, Tara Postma and Emmanuel Akintunde
were all very funny and despite obvious hiccups with
lines, the piece was highly entertaining. Sam Hindes as
Niles was particularly hilarious and Hecker won best
Comic Performance thanks to his outstanding
performance.
Stuart House presented a more familiar extract from
Blood Brothers by Willy Russell, directed by Alicia
Thompson and Katie Musselbrook. They had a very
strong cast with Robert Musselbrook, Alex Lattimore,
DRAMA
Ben Jacobs, Gemma Moran and Adam Clarke but the
part of Micky is always the one that stands out and
James Jones relished his chance to play the part. He
won Best Actor and the piece was given the top award of
Best production.
Usherwood presented a very original piece in the
form of an adaptation of the film Clueless, based on
Jane Austin’s novel, Emma. This was an excellent
ensemble piece allowing lots of people opportunities to
take part and also scope for film projection and some
interesting design features. A cast of millions included
Shona Barnes, Juliet Barratt, Victoria Keppe, Malcolm
Fernandez, Mark Berbeck, Kevin Ilo, Kunal Patel, Daniel
Woolgar, Peter Uhegbu and Farah Patel who all looked
like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves. The
leading lady, however, was certainly Katie Turner, who
played the main part with tremendous assurance and wit
and was awarded the prize of Best Actress. For Best
Direction and Design the team of Andrew Michael, Becky
Plummer and Alistair Brockbanks were justly rewarded.
LOWER SIXTH DRAMA EXAMINATION

HOUSE PLAYS
Forder
Hecker

Stuart
Usherwood
HOUSE PLAYS

DRAMA
EW
Electronic Workshop has had another
successful year supporting the ever
growing number of drama
performances. The two main
highlights were Venetian Twins and
Crisis where our continuing professionalism was once
again evident. Crisis was a special effects extravaganza
as we projected 20ft high images to backdrop the stage,
coupled with quick moving stage lights and bass you
could feel.
Venetian Twins was a contrast of starkly lit dialogue
and colourful music, where once again our experience
gave the show a professional look. Special mention
must go to Nezih Sevaskan, Tom Dare, William Badman
and Chris Benyayer who have been excellent all year.
EW continues to thrive in the Lower and Junior
School and we have several junior members who are
rapidly gaining experience and are already tackling
shows on their own.