Year 11 Exam Work: Ernest and The Pale Moon

Not cheerful – that’s important to make clear from the start.  This was The Yellow Wallpaper meets Psycho meets The Rear Window.  There’s nothing quite like a bit of immurement on a Wednesday night, and Year 11 delivered an unhealthy dose in grim style.  The murderer, the mother, the picture, the girl, the bystander – all present and correct – as was the palpable and compelling smell of madness and decay.  Four groups took their turn on stage to tell this most eerie of stories – a chronology that by design was itself uncertain, leading to an outcome that was at once predictable and inexplicable.  The acting was compelling, the sense of pace and the narrative arc sustained unremittingly; many congratulations one and all – this was, as ever, an exceptional piece of theatre – it’s quite something to know that it was all devised and realised by the pupils themselves.

Brilliant… and now could you tell me what it was all about, please?