With as many as 11 girls’ schools and 16 boys’ schools competing at the All Island Inter School Shakespeare Drama Competition held this Tuesday to Thursday, the drama both on stage and off was certainly entertaining.
Looking at the semi-final round of performances by the girls schools, there were a few issues common to many of the schools - the most significant being diction, the editing of the scripts, the use of sets, the overall conveyance of emotion and a lack of understanding of the situations enacted and the characters being portrayed. These issues aside however, the stronger contestants gave off stunning performances.
St. Bridget’s Convent, with a performance from A Midsummer Nights Dream, made full use of their fantasy setting. While the set, costumes and choreography used were aesthetically pleasing, the selection of scenes could have been done a little better, but this did not take away from the quality of the performance which was commendable. It was a nice mixture of humour and romance supported by an easy, natural style of acting.
Presenting an excerpt from Romeo and Juliet was Visakha Vidyalaya, and the editing here was particularly clever and made the performance very slick and professional while giving an original, contemporary feel to a somewhat hacked Shakespeare romance. Visual and sound effects were put to good use and apart from instances of slight overacting, the portrayal and depiction of characters and scenes brought out well the central conflicts and emotions of the drama.
The cast of Ladies’ College, performing Much Ado About Nothing, delivered an entertaining performance with strong acting and an interesting use of human sets. The use of dancers as trees in the main setting prevented the excessive use of props which would usually tend to make a play lose its flow. Overall, the performance was entertaining, with its lovely, lighthearted tone and subtle humour.
Also worthy of note was the performance by Girls’ High School, Kandy. Performing an excerpt from A Midsummer Nights Dream, the commendable aspect of this performance was the selection of scenes and the context in which the drama had been set in. The Greek had been replaced by Kandyan, and this was an apt choice of setting considering that the cast focused more on the comic aspects of the drama and the slightly slapstick humour used went down well with the audience.
Looking at the girl’s semi-finals as a whole, what was happening on stage could be judged by the reactions of the three judges. A few performances saw one judge nodding in sleep, oblivious. Could this really be considered as fair treatment for all the competing schools?
And the results: Ladies’ College, Visakha Vidyalaya, Girls’ High School and Ave Maria Convent will compete in the Finals, scheduled to be held on October 2 and 4, at 6pm at the Bishop’s College Auditorium. As for individual awards, it came as no surprise that Tehani Welgama was awarded the title of Best Actress, and it was wholly deserved, as her performance was excellent.
St. Peter’s College gave off a passionate performance of Julius Caesar. The combination of good lighting, music and a strong performance by their Marc Antony made the performance memorable. The cast gave their acting a measure of sincerity which has so far been lacking in some of the performances staged this year. If some criticism were to be made, it would be of the crowd scenes which on occasion were a little too raucous.
Unfortunately, due to deadline constraints, The Sunday Times is unable to comment on the boys school performances that followed, but will do so in the review of the upcoming Final.
As always, ‘Shakes’ was an educational and entertaining experience, and kudos to the YMCA and Rotary Club organizing an event of this nature successfully every year. Congratulations too to the casts for their quality performances. The hard work and commitment definitely paid off! |
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