St Edmund's
Jane Eyre
Last week, our L6 international boarders taking Drama produced a remarkable performance of Jane Eyre which received an amazing response from a highly appreciative audience. Their teacher and Director Aimee Walker-Reid has written the following report:
“Our L6 practical drama examinations began last Monday as the first of our groups kicked off the process with a reimagined version of Charlotte Brontë’s, ‘Jane Eyre’. For the Component One exam, pupils are asked to take an extract from a play and completely ‘re-imagine’ the story in a different style of theatre – like taking Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ and turning it into a pop musical – by only using between thirty and seventy percent of the original text; no mean feat for our budding young thespians.
However, imagine now having to embark on this task but in a different language, having never studied Drama as a curricular subject and only starting at the school this academic year, some only at the beginning of the Lent Term. This is how our five boarding pupils, Alessia and Sophie from Italy, Martha, and Letizia from Germany, and Victoria from Switzerland came to the task, choosing British storytelling aficionado’s, Kneehigh, as their theatrical inspiration.
Kneehigh Theatre Company originated in Cornwall, specialising in big, loud, in-your-face storytelling and reimagining of classic stories, myths and fairytales; a perfect fit for the girl’s piece. The company do not shy away from revealing the darkness found in these tales, as well as stretching its comedic moments, bringing to life large, bold characters, incorporating live and recorded music, dance, singing, audience participation and puppets – really, anything and the kitchen sink goes, as long as it’s creating immersive, engaging storytelling. And so our girls threw themselves wholeheartedly at the task in hand, abridging Brontë’s wonderful novel into a fifteen minute riot of storytelling. From writing original songs and dances, multi-rolling several different characters each and bringing to life our Sesame Street-like puppet in the role of the dashingly handsome Mr Rochester’s ward, Adele, the girls plunged into their story, pushing their creative, acting and language skills to the limit.
From the first moment the theatre doors opened and the audience was welcomed and danced into a raucous pub full of far from sober characters that embarked on enthusiastically telling Jane’s tale, to Jane and Rochester’s interrupted wedding where Alessia’s pious, love enchanted Italian priest proclaimed ‘Mamma Mia’ before fainting dramatically, to Martha’s captivating and chilling characterisation of Bertha, Rochester’s first wife, bursting a golden confetti cannon and setting Rochester’s house on fire, accompanied by her hysterical fits of laughter and song, the audience was captivated and completely transported into their world. They skillfully led us through the twists and turns of Jane and Rochester’s romance with grace, sensitivity and a whole lot of energy, allowing us to laugh with them, cry with them and sometimes be completely creeped out by them! This high level of storytelling, skill and engagement displayed by the five girls, learnt in such a short amount of time, was impressive and they should be extremely proud of themselves.
As their teacher, I could not have asked for anything more from these five wonderfully gifted and talented pupils. Their dedication to the piece and to each other was unwavering, and the amount they have learnt and grown in such a short amount of time is truly inspiring. They are a credit to themselves, to the Drama Department and to St Edmund’s, and I feel honoured to have been able to work with them.”
Aimee Walker-Reid
Drama Teacher