DRAMA holidays. The supply teacher brought in to take over his class, Joanna Ebony played by Fiona Watt, soon realises that her class aren't as innocent as they seem. As the play unfolds, the class claims to have murdered their former teacher, which Miss Ebony finds increasingly believable. As her home life with her husband played by Oliver Marlow, deteriorates, Miss Ebony confides in a philosophical fellow teacher played by Lucy Robertson. Again, this stark play was delivered with a very high standard of acting. Special mention must go to Fiona Watt and Oliver Marlow for their excellent performances.
GOTCHA This was the gem of the three plays on offer at St. Peter's this year. The small cast allowed for continual tension and character development. The setting of the play was a small stockroom of a city comprehensive, where an unnamed pupil holds hostage three members of staff. The boy played by Stephen Mulryne has reached sixteen, and is leaving School; he is bitter and slightly uiihinged at leaving with no qualifications and no future. The setting of the play is extremely claustrophobic, with all four characters locked together in a potentially fatal chain of events. The play's theme is the state of education, and its betrayal of pupils with limited ability. The distance between the pupil and his teachers is excellently portrayed, as they cannot remember his name although they have just written his report. The cast of Lucy Seed, Stephen Mulryne, Stephen Whalley and John Shaw were faultless. The initial anger shown by the teachers towards the boy, gradually turns to sympathy from Lucy Seed in a touching scene where the boy is finally reached. Excellent performances made this gritty play a sheer joy to witness. Well done! Amit Roy
THE SCHOOL INSPECTOR The setting for this play is St. Hilda's Academy for Young Ladies, an archaic institution, where the masters' main incentive is the exploitation of the pupils' wealthy parents. The Headmistress, played by Sophie PearsonHill, is the ring-leader of thievish staff, who over the years have earned large salaries by pocketing smoking fines and such like. However, this lucrative scam is endangered by the unannounced arrival of a School Inspector. The impending visit shocks the staff including Ben Croft as Mr. Fiddler the Bursar, Katy Pittman as the Matron, Claire Taylor as Miss Precious the Deputy and Faith Alexander as Head of Games; who all have their comfortable lives at risk. When a strange man arrives in the isolated village, a case of mistaken identity occurs when the Headmistress leaps to the conclusion that this is the dreaded inspector. The stranger (Steve Clegg) and his girlfriend (Molly Tyler-Childs) soon realise that this could be a costly mistake for the staff and take full advantage of the situation with truly comic results. An excellent play, which was enriched with a high standard of acting. Congratulations to all the cast on giving the audience an insight into what goes on behind the scenes of an English Public School!!!
UNMAN, WITTERING AND ZIGO This contemporary play is a chilling account of master/pupil relations based on the theme of discipline. The play is set in and around Chantery College, a traditional boys' boarding School. The play centres around the death of a teacher, which occurred in the School 24
