Wednesday 16th November 2016 was the first time that Sancton Wood performed in the Shakespeare Schools Festival, at the Mumford Theatre.
The cast of 28 actors and 1 technical operator performed a 30 minute version of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Macbeth.
Now, Mrs Cowen doesn’t like to stick with tradition and as Shakespeare wrote to entertain, that was the intention the cast had with a modern twist by turning Macbeth into a piece of meta-theatre (a play within a play) where tragedy met comedy when things went wrong: the Witches forgot to vanish, Macbeth didn’t have his dagger for his famous speech and Lady Macbeth’s renowned ‘out, damned spot!’ speech was cut short by a bottle of Cillit Bang (other cleaning products are available)!
After the festival the students received an appraisal from the organisers and the comments commended them on their excellent standard of performance, with particular compliments being paid to the impeccable comic timing and flawless switching between styles, which even professional actors would find challenging. With much laughter from the audience and rapturous applause it was clear that the Mumford Theatre had been treated to a student performance of the highest standard. Mr Settle was very impressed sat in the audience, while Mrs Cowen, Mrs Cottam and Dr Armitage were proudly watching from the wings. Mrs Roberts (who kindly offered to chaperone) also couldn’t believe the high quality produced from the students in such a relatively short time.
Well done to each and every cast member: ‘we are such stuff as dreams are made on’.
You can watch a recording of the performance filmed during the groups dress rehearsal at the Mumford Theatre here.
