THE YEAR 11 PLAYS

I remember those evenings as a child being read fairy tales by my parents – the macabre, the surreal, and the scary (the stories, not the parents).  Making pictures in one’s mind…

I think this year’s GCSE candidates must have had some wonderfully rich experiences of their own in order to have conjured such marvellous realities out of the pages of those same books. Right from the first night’s first moments and leathery shadows, to the second night’s final happy denouement under the juniper tree we the audience were led (like so many innocent children) into a world darker even than the auditorium.  Stolen children, invisible children, incarcerated children; the poor, the misguided, the sinful, the beautiful, the athletic and balletic, the accented (what an array we had over the two evenings), the happy and sad, the murdered, the sickly, the saved and the damned.  Oh yes, plenty to trouble us, but plenty to uplift us as well: a few moral imperatives and a healthy dose of instruction. And laughter.  Yes, despite all the disasters that befall the characters in fables, we also had plenty of laughs to relieve the tension and ease the narrative.  As Miss Mayes and Mr Williams said at the end: it is remarkable how skilfully performed these six plays were: how interestingly dramatised, well staged, slickly delivered and enthusiastically received (and rightly so). Many congratulations indeed to all the performers (and their guides and mentors) on a great two evenings of entertainment.

And just remember to lock your doors tonight.