SCHOOL NEWS
Boudica
The school was delighted to welcome friends and family to watch the senior play, Boudica. Directed by Johanna Egar, this intense, hard-hitting play, based on the history as recorded by Tacitus, was breathtaking.
“The performances were outstanding, complemented by staging, tech, and all that the Burrell Theatre and those who cultivate its life are able to conjure. The maturity of the themes was matched by the maturity of the pupils exploring them in their acting. I do want to give a real shout-out to all involved, which includes staff as well as pupils, and those of you who have spent time and energy ferrying your children to and fro, and supporting them with the resilience required to deliver such a show and manage the wider pressures on their lives at the same time.” Andy Johnson, Truro School Head. In her Director’s Note, Johanna wrote: When we began to rehearse Boudica, a common question amongst the cast was ‘Is my character a goodie or a baddie?’.
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As discussions and rehearsals progressed, the difficulty in answering this question became increasingly a focus on what, for us, this show is about. The answer – both simple and complex at the same time – is that there are no ‘bad’ or ‘good’ characters in the world of this play. Horrific abuse and reprisals are experienced and enacted by Romans and Britons alike, and it is only when the Roman Sylvia and British Alonna talk to one another in a central scene – and hear one another for the first time – that they realise they are not so different after all. We also concluded that what the characters experience in their world of Ancient Briton is not so very different from the huge and pressing issues of our own world.
