Donald Bancroft One Act Play

The Bancroft competition, set up in 1999 in memory of former College teacher Donald Bancroft, gives Lancing pupils the opportunity to showcase their talent by writing and directing their own work.

This year’s winner was Upper Sixth Former Theo Craig with his play Snapshots. Runner-up was Poppy Sutcliffe (also Upper Sixth). Snapshots was performed in the College Theatre at the end of January, attended by Donald Bancroft’s family.

Theo writes: ‘Having the opportunity to compete for the Bancroft Playwright Competition again was so fulfilling. I had been brainstorming and drafting ideas and scripts all summer but could never land on anything concrete. That was until I wrote a monologue that really stuck out to me. I had used Pinter’s style as inspiration and from there, with a combination of Stoppard’s The Real Thing, I weaved together a story of writers, actors, deceit and murder.

Snapshots is a precise and complex play that focuses on the conflict between tradition and modernity, while also exploring the tense and strained relationships of the three characters. It follows the depressed Jonathan – whose career in playwriting has left him with nothing but contempt for his former writing partner, Arthur, who moved to film and became vastly more successful. But he has suspicions that Arthur is having an affair with Emma, Jonathan’s wife, and Arthur has come back to make amends and keep his friendship with Jonathan intact. It was a dream come true to win the award for the second year in a row – an unprecedented record! Bringing the production to life was a treat. My fellow cast members, Milo Vogel and Ash Sinclair, were a delight to work with and the three of us focused deeply on our characters and portraying even the subtlest of thoughts in each line and pause.’