What's happening in dramaramaland?!

October 22nd 2021

This half term it's been the usual fun filled lessons over in dramaramaland!

The drama Scholars have brought some sunshine into some of the assemblies this half term when they performed pieces to the whole school. Most of the pieces performed were learnt, prepared and rehearsed especially for the assemblies, which were designed to showcase the work and standards of the Scholars. The girls' performances embraced a wide range of drama styles, with Claudia M and Esther B (L6) performing a piece from 'Theatre of the Absurd', Olivia F (L6) performing a modern drama piece and Scarlett B (L5) performing a classical piece.

Over the half term holidays, Head of Drama, Mr Punter will be staying in the village of Eyam in Derbyshire to do some research for this term's senior production of the play 'The Roses of Eyam'. The play tells the true story of the village of Eyam and what happened there about 350 years ago.

In the autumn of 1665, a box of fine and fashionable clothes from London was ordered by the village tailor. The box duly arrived but no sooner had the tailor opened it, he began to feel ill. During the course of the night, he became worse and by the morning he was dead, his body was covered in black lesions that looked like roses. The two vicars in the village quickly recognized the illness – it was the plague and it had been carried up from London in the box of clothes. The two men decided the only thing to do was to cut off the village and prevent anyone coming in or leaving in order to prevent the plague spreading. Out of the 320 villagers, 267 died between autumn 1665 and spring of 166 but the “lockdown” policy ultimately proved successful as no-one outside the village died.

Mr Punter's visit will include the church, the graveyard where nearly all the 'characters' in the play are buried, the house in which they lived and the village museum. We are sure the trip will also include a trip to the village pub, purely for research of course!