stuck in the trenches helped to round off the performance, linking all the scenes together seamlessly.
It wasn’ t until the emotional close of the play that I realised just how invested I was in the life of Saki. When the officer of the 22 nd Royal Fusiliers( Edwin Fletcher( E, 2020-)) stood up to address the audience with his touching monologue after Saki’ s death, I realised just how much Saki’ s life and stories impacted people. Moving us to tears, the chorus took turns saying the names and death dates of different soldiers, filling the auditorium with a solemn, empathetic air; real people lived like this and died on the battle front.
The play, based on the life of one of Britain’ s great short story writers, made the audience ponder the meaning of life through its stories of rebellion, friendship, jealousy, mischief, chaos, and, finally, death. It was a captivating performance, and the electric atmosphere and amazing array of themes, genres and talent left the audience to wonder“ what’ s next?” at every moment.
Eva Crouch( G, 2024-)
A Note from the Collegeman Editor
Being, as I am, utterly incapable of preventing myself from rushing to QEII upon hearing that something new is being put on( indeed, Monsieur Fondain could tell you about my prying into the theatre’ s calendar for many months to come), I was wonderfully excited for another Dr Krishnan show – and Life According to Saki did not disappoint. In fact, to use the word in association with the production would be unforgivable. It was poignant where it needed to be, and hilarious in others – it moved us both into a tangible tension, and into Romantic introspection. The perfect choreography of the boys as they made St Sebastian, and Saki’ s favourite story, only three words long( and Rishi’ s delivery of that line), will find themselves among my favourite memories of moments on that stage.
The Wykehamist
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