ALICE AND THE DREAMTELLERS
This reimagining of Shakespeare and Fletcher’ s The Two Noble Kinsmen follows Alice as she navigates a falling-out with her sister Paloma, guided by some magical dreamtellers.
Picture this: A Midsummer Night’ s Dream meets The Apprentice, throw in some live music for good measure, add some tutus, fairy wings and of course pyjamas and you get the creation of Jim Grant’ s incredible play Alice and The Dreamtellers performed by Year 9 in the Lent term.
At the start of the performance we see created a heartfelt and emotional feud between two sisters, Alice and Paloma( Juliet van Rossen and Ella Morgan), which results in Alice working through the underlying sibling rivalry through a series of dreams.
In the first dream we see a parallel story of two sisters, Emilia( played by Lola Bray) and Hippolyta( Merryn Campbell Chandra), mirroring the relationship between Alice and Paloma. Hippolyta is preparing for marriage to Theseus( expertly played by Dominic King), who demonstrates strong moral values and integrity in the face of conflict. The theme of rivalry is played out again in the central story of two brothers, Palamon( Samuel Horsley) and Arcite( Suri Nair). Their close bond descends into a bitter hatred when they both fall in love with Emilia, culminating in a fight to the death.
Tragically, it takes the finality of death before they realise the error of their ways. One of my favourite performances was the powerful portrayal of Biro I mean Crayon( a joke from the play) who is the uncle of Palamon and Arcite, played excellently by Benjamin Pearce-Mason. Although arguably the villain of the play, Benjamin managed to bring humour to the performance, delivering some much-needed comic relief from the drama.
A key element running through the play was arguably the music, by Year 9 composer Phoebe Tsang. The harp, guitar, violin, cello and piano – all played by the dreamtellers – provided an enchanting dreamlike soundtrack. A big thanks to Ms Day for helping us to seamlessly bring all of the instruments together. With a massive thanks also to Mrs Hellsten for the amazing costumes that really made the play what it was, and to the tech team for their incredibly hard work, which created a memorable atmosphere.
Mr Henry and Mr Beverley deserve their own separate paragraph for their absolutely fantastic directing and managing of the cast, somehow managing to make rehearsals enjoyable and amusing while keeping them professional and efficient. The direction of the play was truly exceptional, balancing the grandeur of large group scenes with the intimacy of smaller, character-driven moments. The mirror scene, and of course, the battle sequence and intense prison scene, were all staged with great intensity and skill. Overall, it was a truly unique experience – both on and off stage – and I can’ t wait until the next performance!
Amber-Lily El-Alami, Year 9
44 DRAMA REVIEW