The Harrovian

THE HARROVIAN VOL. CXXXI NO.15 February 2, 2019 THE LARAMIE PROJECT into the lackadaisical owner of a local bar and the bumbling cyclist who found the body of Matthew Shepard. Matthew Bradbys and West Acre House Play, Ilomuanya, West Acre, acted characters ranging from a young Ryan Theatre, 23 and 24 January DJ, to an outspoken old woman, to a timid member of the gay community in Laramie. The contrast between the characters Bradbys and West Acre performed their production of The of Sam McGougan, Bradbys, presented a particularly difficult Laramie Project on the evenings of 23 and 24 January. The job, but he nevertheless provided an assured and impressive play focuses on the true events surrounding the brutal murder performance both as the young male bartender and the middle- of a young gay student, Matthew Shepard, in a small city called aged and concerned Cathy. Perhaps most significantly, Tom Laramie in Wyoming, and how the community there responded Latham, Bradbys, had the job of playing both the killer and to it. All characters portrayed in the play were real people and the victim’s father, both of whom he executed with impressive the lines are predominantly things that they said, which made contrast and emotional nuance. for an unusual sense of realism and gravitas. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the script itself is that the majority of lines are characters telling the story directly to the audience, with only a handful of scenes showing any interaction between the characters. Theatre enthusiasts will recognise this breaking of the fourth wall as a “Brechtian” technique, meaning the audience should be primarily aware of the story and the lessons of the play rather than being sucked into the realism too much. In short, this was an extremely abstract and ambitious script to take on for a House play and credit must go to MGP for managing to pull it off. This abnormality was immediately apparent upon entering the auditorium, as the audience were confronted with not only a semicircle of chairs facing them, but also a projector screen The ensemble nature of the play i.e. the cast were all on looming over the stage. From looking at the programme, one stage throughout, and had a large job to do in conveying the could see that each actor in the cast had three or four characters community of Laramie and how it responded to the tragedy. to play, and one perhaps pondered how such frequent costume One moment of particular note was the touching end to the changes would work. It soon became apparent that each cast first half of the show, when the lights dimmed to a faint glow member had an identical base costume (a plain black shirt and as each cast member passed their chair along a chain of people trousers) and added other items of clothing or accessories, all of to the back of the stage, all to the backdrop of some calm and which were located in a box under the actor’s chair, to denote simple folk music. This moment was effective as it reflected ther change of character, all of which took place right in front a community striving to function in a time of rare heightened of the audience’s eyes. This had the desired “Brechtian” effect emotion. This moment meant that instead of sitting on chairs of pulling us out of the drama so that we could focus on the facing the actor speaking, the ensemble were sitting on their social and cultural issues that the play treats. costume boxes facing away from the speaker, which gave the impression of a community of people turning away from one another in the times of tension that were portrayed in the second half. This production had a lot to do justice to – the topics of homophobia and fatal hate crime are not ones you can simply tiptoe around – yet everyone involved tackled the task with a maturity. Ms Watson worked her usual magic in doing a lot with a little in terms of costume and set design, whilst Mr Bubb and Mr Kinsella set the mood perfectly with lighting and sound and projection design respectively. MPG directed his debut House play with the ambition and skill to break away from normal theatrical conventions, which of course must be commended; finally, huge credit must go to the cast for their The spotlight of this play was very much on the character work commitment to the project (even if their accents did begin to of the actors, which in itself was made far more difficult by the fade towards the end of the play). Hearty thanks for a touching distinctive rural Western American accents of Wyoming. The and thought-provoking experience. cast, however, dealt with this challenge splendidly, in some cases The collection at the end of the performance was £277.84 displaying an outstanding range of acting skills and emotional in aid of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which was set up depth. Examples of this included Archie Rowlins West Acre, after Matthew’s murder in Laramie to foster a more caring who kicked the play off with a bombastic black police jacket and just world; to share his story and embody his vigour for and an impressively accurate accent, giving us an introduction civil rights to change the hearts and minds of others to accept to the nature of Wyoming and its people, before transforming everyone as they are. February 2, 2019 T H E H A R R O V I A N THE GLOBE area and finding out how they really do need to fill the space around them with their singing. The boys were sure that the 15 January tourists passing through would have loved their singing! Colin very kindly allowed the boys some time to take photos On 15 January, after only being back together for a week in and selfies on the stage, as it is not every day you get to stand School, the cast and crew of this year’s Shakespeare production, on the most famous stage in England. APC said a few words Twelfth Night, went on a day’s visit to the Globe theatre where, and thanked Colin for giving up his time. The boys thoroughly on 24 March, they will be performing. Led by APC and WJC, enjoyed their workshop and we hope they will not have forgotten this was promising to be an exciting visit with a workshop with everything they have learnt by the time the performance comes professional actor Colin Hurley. round in March. After a short coach journey into London, we were welcomed at the door of the Globe and taken down into practice room where we met Colin. After some brief introductions, the cast and even crew got involved in some theatrical activities that ALEXANDER SOCIETY were meant to help the cast aclimatise to how the Globe stage Vaughan Library, 22 January will feel like. The crew were then taken away by Mr Leach to have a look round the technical parts of the Globe stage. One On a blustery Tuesday afternoon, JPM enlightened the Alexander of Colin’s main goal was to make sure he never took off his Society about the Battle of Lepanto, which some historians have glasses, which caused much amusement when the cast would claimed to be the high-water mark of Ottoman power. The battle screamed “Colin!” ach time he did, causing APC to jump. was described by Fernand Braudel, arguably one of the greatest However, another of Colin’s theatrical aims was to help the cast historians of Mediterranean, as ‘the most spectacular military understand the different levels of dialogue. What he meant was event in the Mediterranean during the entire sixteenth century.’ that when you deliver a line, is it to yourself (first circle), or to It involved over 450 galleasses and galleys, and resulted in the one other person (second circle) or, finally, to a large group of death of over 40,000 men, at the time the second-highest body people like an audience (third circle)? After elaborating further count of any single-day European battle. According to one on this point, the cast were thrown into some activities designed Venetian source, in the hours after the battle, the Mediterranean to test their new-found knowledge of levels of dialogue. After turned red with blood. focusing on the vocal side of acting, Colin moved on to the Throughout the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the physical side and explained how the way you move and where powers of Christendom were increasingly alarmed by Ottoman you stand in relation to the other people on stage can really expansion. JPM explained how the Ottoman Empire had become emphasise and exaggerate the tension in some moments. For a great power: the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 had sent example, Colin described a production in which he saw two shockwaves through Christendom, making successive kings actors on the stage confronting each other but they were at each and popes tremble at the prospect of Ottoman invasion and side of the stage facing each other. Because of the distance, he subjugation. Ottoman conquests from the reign of Sultan Mehmed said that even the smallest movement had a big impact on the the Conqueror (1451–81) through to Suleyman the Magnificent audience, whereas if two people are face to face, everything (1520–66), gave them territory in Europe, the Middle East and is a bit all over the place and chaotic, with no control in their North Africa, as well as control of the Eastern Mediterranean.

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