Orchard Theatre Festival – Outdoor Action
On Thursday and Friday last week actors from across the school took to our sunny outdoor stage as part of the Orchard Theatre Festival. Hosted by the comedic duo of Emily and Max, both evenings saw a wide range of performances ranging from heartfelt monologues to impressive magic tricks from our Prep performers!
Highlights from Thursday’s show included the Theatre in Education (TIE) performance on neurodiversity. Over several months 13 students worked together to create an educational yet amusing show that sought to explain neurodiversity to primary school aged students. After touring local primary schools, the show was brought back to Caterham and was a raging success amongst the audience thanks to its humour and informative nature. Alongside TIE, Thursday saw a group performance of an extract from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. With incredible performances from all of the students involved, particularly Stella’s Augustus Gloop, it was wonderful to see so many confident and engaged actors bringing to life Roald Dahl’s classic text.
As the evening progressed and the sun started to set, we moved into smaller group pieces including an absurdist duologue from Joseph K, a comedic conversation from Mean Girls and a rousing monologue titled Freedom Fighter. There was even a rendition of Ex Wives from Six the Musical before Zandi & Tristan in the Upper Sixth closed the evening with The Shape of Things, marking the end of their dramatic pursuits at Caterham.
Oliver Clegg and Elliott Ross kicked off Friday evening’s senior performances with an extract titled We’re on a Mission, which saw two best friends attempt to take a photo with a celebrity only for it to go horribly wrong. With audience interaction and larger-than-life characters, the duo brought the house down. The comedic tone of the evening was carried on by Emily and Holly’s duologue from Lady Windermere’s Fan, in which Holly played the gossipy Duchess of Berwick and Emily played the slighted Lady Windermere. Shocking revelations, strong performances and amusing quips kept the audience on their toes throughout. The tone of the evening shifted as we heard a heartfelt message during Olivia and Emily’s extract from the hit film Barbie and host Max’s moving extract on the challenges of parenting from Call Me By Your Name.
The penultimate performance by the Lower Sixth, A Series of Public Apologies (in response to an unfortunate incident in the school lavatories), saw an absurd incident that took place within a school bathroom provoke a series of escalating apologises to the public forum. The performance was nothing short of hilarious thanks to the tight knit ensemble work and wacky characters dreamt up by the Lower Sixth. Directed by Rosie, our very own Tech Captain, this was a real highlight!
And, as tradition now dictates, the festival was brought to a close by some of our very own teachers, treading the boards in their version of Matilda. This year they were (quite necessarily!) supported by the hosts, Emily & Max, whose performances as Miss Honey & Miss Trunchbull pulled the whole thing together.
Listed above was just a small selection of the amazing performances staged during the festival, and the Drama department wants to thank and congratulate everyone who was involved in the festival. You should all be incredibly proud of your performances – what a way to end the year!
