Twelfth Night at the Academy

The Commons’ stage came alive on Saturday evening with a performance of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Producing a Shakespeare play with a group of young Senior School students is not for the faint-hearted. Despite his deep insight into human character and behaviour, and the beauty of his use of language, Shakespeare's writing is both poetic and of its time, and therefore can pose some difficulties for a modern cast and audience. What was particularly notable was the ease with which the students delivered their lines, not just as words but really conveying the meaning as well—no mean feat. 

The play was produced with very little in the way of props or scenery so that the action was not slowed by the movement of items on the stage, though in an enterprising move, one of the Commons’ table racks became a most effective jail! It also meant that the enthusiastic audience was left to concentrate on the action and acting: by turns touching, comic (there was some excellent knock-about comedy that the students obviously enjoyed taking part in) and always engaging. Congratulations to the directors, Mrs Heather Grafe and Ms Naureen Dhanani and all the cast.