Towards the end of the final full week of Lent, while other boys would have been winding down in anticipation of the Easter holidays, five groups of boys were working tirelessly to perfect a show. Having already made it through the preliminary round of the House Drama Competition, they had been living with their plays for up to twelve weeks by that point – an incredibly exciting yet daunting thing.
We were very privileged to have Mark Ravenhill as this year’s adjudicator and it would prove a very tough decision for him, not least because of the wide variety of tones and styles brought by the boys. Every performance had a confident and distinct character to the others; from the break-neck and hilarious Noises Off presented by ABH to the spine-chilling and eerie Three More Sleepless Nights presented by PAH. The Sixth Interview (JMO’B) touchingly conveyed the lengths a mother will go to for vengeance, and both it and Educating Rita (JDN) were bravely and very successfully carried by only two boys. Les Bonnes (Coll) ended the night on an ecstatic, crazed, and powerfully aware note with Shaw Worth’s wonderful translation receiving a commendation from Mark.
In the end, however, PAH took home the St. Aubyn Cup but congratulations to every single person who participated – it is immensely difficult to put together a performance with minimal adult help and there was an outstanding level of directing and acting evident.
Lorenzo Harvey-Allchurch
