The Wykehamist
up stepped Ozan Gergoz( H, 2024-) in military costume head to toe, like that of a Central Asian dictator, with a speech from Julius Caesar delivered by Mark Antony, the well known,“ Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!” Ozan’ s charm managed to transport the audience back in time to a speech from Mark Antony himself, charismatic yet calculated. On the other hand, Caspar Jack’ s( F, 2023-) soliloquy by Lady Macbeth was cynical and controlled whist maintaining a thorough intensity.
Then came the first pupil duo act with Patrick Chum( D, 2023-) and James Hoskin( D, 2023-), continuing the Macbeth theme with a fierce conversation between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, the performance added a refreshing change to the evening, with the pair working off each other’ s strengths to show Macbeth’ s overwhelming guilt and Lady Macbeth’ s control. Stumbling onto the stage came the Porter, or Antony Kim( E, 2021-) who stuttering and stammering his way through gave us the much-needed comedic relief from the intense Macbeth stint.
This break was not long as Annabelle Brunt( D, 2023-) performed Macbeth’ s speech“ She should have died hereafter”; a speech from Macbeth reacting to the death of Lady Macbeth, Annabelle adapted to the short length of the soliloquy well to emphasise Macbeth’ s emptiness.
Rishi Bhardwaj( E, 2020-) then performed the second parody of the night with a comic version of the well-known“ To be, or not to be – that is the question”, which instead was,“ To be or not to be, aye, there’ s the point”, – a comic act which made the audience laugh a multitude of times. Hamlet was performed next by Eva Crouch, in Ophelia’ s speech“ O, what a noble mind is here o’ erthrown!”, bringing the audience back down to earth after the comedic highs of the last performance, with a gripping performance of Ophelia’ s inner sorrow being poured out. The final pupil act was certainly last but not least when Alexander Varouxakis-Thomas( E, 2021-) performed a soliloquy from The Tempest, read by Prospero,“ Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves”; an elevated speech, rich in imagery which ended the pupils’ performances on a high note.
To complete the circle, NGK ended the show, with a poem, read by Puck, in A Midsummer Night’ s Dream,“ If we shadows have offended”, a short and sweet farewell to what was a diverse array of talent across the pupil and staff body.
Arthur Duckworth( I, 2021-)
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