The Magazine of St Aloysius' College • 'Men for Others' • Issue XLVII ...

stuffed in a fridge for a third of the play. Great fun for an
actor but an endurance nethertheless. He demonstrated
considerable skill and discipline, giving a very impressive
performance. Our other ‘new’ actor was Luke Pelletier (Year
11) as the priest impersonator who made considerable
progress during the production and revealed a quirky sense
of humour that suited the play very well.
Scott Fitzgerald.
and a half hours without an interval. The action had to be
choreographed, the set changed without an interval, the
breakneck pace built up and the handling of the numerous
tricky (and messy) props overcome. The hardest task for
the inexperienced cast was the delivery of complex lines.
Unlike normal conversation which is relatively easy to learn,
the characters thought processes weren’t always logical
and the delivery had to be fast.
The largest challenge was for Benjamin Rice (Year 11)
who is normally our Senior Stage Manager. Benjamin had
to deliver most of the lines, be on stage almost the entire time
and impersonate a woman – no light feat. He managed to
carry out the task superbly, taking command of the play
with considerable stage presence and powerful focus and
control. The three kidnappers were also inexperienced
and David Boyd (Year 11) and Henry Tuckwell (Year 11)
discovered they have what it takes to take to the ‘boards’
and give an effective and entertaining performance. The
hardest physical challenge in the play was undertaken
by Mitchell Bainton (Year 11) as the kidnapper who is
on the receiving end of most of abuse from the Jackie O
impersonator character. Mitchell had to be chained up,
pretend to be electrocuted numerous times, be set on fire
and extinguished with a fire extinguisher, smeared all over
with chocolate, led around by a rope around his neck and
Ciaran Tobin, Luke Pelletier and Mitchell Bainton.
The two actors with some experience were Scott
Fitzpatrick (Year 11) and Ciaran Tobin (Year 11). Scott
also had a challenging role in playing the mother of Jackie
O. Scott has a lot of talent and confidence on stage and,
despite some ad-libbing, managed to provide most of the
entertainment for the audience and get the most laughs for
his wicked mother character. Some members of his own
family didn’t even recognise him. Ciaran was the one actor
on the evening who had a part in both productions and
had to shuffle back and forth between rehearsal rooms. He
bought a wonderful cheekiness to his ‘innocent young man’
character which worked to perfection.
Although the rehearsals for this play were difficult, it
was great fun to work with the cast. They were a very
responsible, creative and disciplined group who were very
supportive of each other and took the chance on being
involved in such a difficult and potentially controversial
production.
In the end the performance went a little further than I
was perhaps comfortable with, but then theatre has to be
about taking risks.
Mr Peter Gough
Director and Head of Drama
Scott Fitzgerald and Mitchell Bainton.
St Aloysius’ College
A Jesuit School for Boys _ Founded 1879 aloysiad / page 39