Year 11, Unit 3 Examination Performances

On the 22 and 23 March, our Year 11 GCSE students took to the stage with their final examination performances. Unit 3 is worth 40% of the overall GCSE marks, so the pressure was on to create their best work yet… and the audience was not disappointed! Innovation and creativity were evident in every play – the Year 11s surpassed themselves. Over two evenings we saw five outstanding and thought provoking performances. The performances were ably supported by our wonderful sound and lighting team: Reece Guyon, Julia Hashem Shauna Holland, Isobel Leap, Karly Mullins and Olivia Gardiner, who chose lighting as her Unit 3 assessment option. There was even a voiceover performed by our resident voiceover expert, Mr Milnes. Congratulations to all of the GCSE students – you worked with absolute commitment towards these performances and deserved all the success you achieved.

• ‘Hope Springs’. Sent to a remote island by their parents, to a correctional facility for teenagers, pupils are subject to draconian discipline in the attempt to ‘cure’ them of their delinquent ways. When communication with the island breaks down, an inspector discovers that the pupils have confronted the regime and taken matters into their own hands… Adapted from the play by Richard Conlon and performed by Farah Khan, Nansi Morgan, Charlotte Newman, Maysa Taher and Charlotte Vaandrager.
• ‘Find Me’. At the age of twenty, Verity was charged by the police with damaging a chair by fire in the mental hospital where she was a patient. Later, she was committed to Broadmoor “from where she may not be discharged without permission of the Home Secretary.” ‘Find Me’ focuses on the personality of the young girl and at the same time studies the effects of her behaviour on those around her. Adapted from the play by Olwen Wymark, performed by Simran Bhatt, Rebecca Duncan, Ahmed Jheir and Stephanie Manning, with lighting by Olivia Gardiner.
• ‘The Pillowman’. Katurian, a writer of short stories which often depict violence against children, has been arrested by two detectives, Ariel and Tupolski, because some of her stories resemble recent child murders. When she hears that her brother Michal has confessed to the murders, she takes the blame herself and resigns herself to her execution but attempts to save her stories from destruction. Adapted from the play by Martin McDonough and performed by Cameron Icelli, Natalie Myatt, Scarlet Robinson and Danyaal Zubair.
• ‘The Exam’. The Exam is a funny but serious look at the pressures faced by pupils today, both at school and at home. Andrew, Chas and Bea are three candidates of mixed ability who find themselves holed up in the same exam hall waiting for their papers to arrive. As they wait, they must come to terms with themselves, their peers and parents — provoked and helped by ‘Mr Ex’, the mysterious, disembodied voice of the exam. Adapted from the play by Andy Hamilton and performed by Hamza Husain, Sam Mannings, Hanna Selim and Anish Vishkawoti.
• ‘Five Kinds of Silence’. Focusing on a family living under the power of the vicious Billy, who physically and emotionally abuses his wife, and children, this examines the way that the family is bonded by abuse. The story unfolds from interviews with a police official trained in psychology. The play also explores ideas of abuse being continued from childhood, how abused children may in the future abuse their own children and isolation from the outside world, which we find out is the case with Billy himself. Adapted from the play by Shelagh Stephenson and performed by Ghazi Al Ruffai, Chantal Makar Saleh, Iman Malik, Daniah Mohieldin, Elena Virili and Faisal Zainab.