‘How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is To have a thankless child!’ (King Lear, Act 1 Scene 4)
Drama is an incredible subject – it’s not just about getting up and acting! Among other things it’s about analysing a script, learning about characterisation, dissecting plot, and exploring and investigating the background to the story.
Last week, on Thursday 18th May, Lower I to Upper II had the opportunity to study that most meaty and challenging of Shakespeare’s plays, ‘King Lear’ in workshops run by the Orange Tree Theatre at St Augustine’s Priory. Mrs van der Merwe here describes the events of the day:
‘After a wonderful production of Romeo and Juliet in the Michaelmas Term the Junior School continues with its great love for William Shakespeare. The Orange Tree Theatre has been working with the whole of the Junior School in workshops to prepare for our annual visit to their Shakespeare production.
This year the play we are going to see is ‘King Lear’, so there were plenty of howling winds and ungrateful daughters as girls learnt about the characters, both virtuous and villainous, and discussed sixteenth century vocabulary and poetry and explored the twists and turns of the plot.
The girls relished the opportunity to be caught up in the drama and passions of the play and the workshops ended leaving the final plot twist as a cliff-hanger to be discovered in June.
The Shakespeare won’t end there though as Upper II will also be studying ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in both Drama and English later in the year.’
