Unlike the dejected Shylock in his final moments in The Merchant of Venice, the cast of Royal College would be well content with its victory at the Inter Schools Drama Competition.
Finishing off the much anticipated annual Shakespeare season, the competition- organized by Alethea International School and sponsored by Cambridge International Examinations with Trinity Guildhall- featured performances by Alethea International School, Ananda College, Lyceum International School- Nugegoda and Royal College. Following Royal College in second place were Ananda College and Lyceum International School, with Alethea International School coming in at third place.
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| Winners - Royal College
take the stage |
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| Runners up: Lyceum International School and Ananda College |
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| Best actor Thenal Ellawala |
The theme being Shakespeare’s comedies, it was somewhat disappointing to find that many contestants skirted around the humour of the comedies enacted, sticking to more intense scenes in their excerpts as seen in the performances of The Merchant of Venice.
Despite this, aside from the ever present instances of unnecessary slapstick humour, there was a fair share of cleverly executed humour for the comedy buffs in the audience.
No excerpt of The Tempest would be complete without a dramatisation of the tempest for which it is named, and which opens the drama. And show opener Alethea International School made effective use of choreography to bring this scene to life. Creative visuals of dancers with wide strips of rippling blue cloth depicting a stormy sea, controlled by an imposing Prospero decked with lights on his cloak for a sense of mystique, made for an aesthetically pleasing, memorable and extremely clever opening scene. Admittedly, the choreographed sequence was a tad too long but this was not detrimental to the performance.
Characterization was effective and the performance was held together by consistent, strong performances by the leads and the supporting characters. The portrayal of Caliban by Hakeem ur Rahman in particular, was well thought out in terms of interpretation and who took on the role must be commended for sustaining a hoarse growl without lapse throughout the performance- not an easy task. Overall, the performance would have done better with a little more focus on humour as it was clear the actors would have proved themselves capable of performing comedy despite the challenges involved.
Ananda College, following with the second excerpt of The Tempest, also made use of a dance sequence to depict the tempest orchestrated by Prospero.
However, more effective than the choreography was the use of a minimalist, avant-garde set, which Ariel and the sprites made good use of, and which complemented the performance thoroughly. The editing of this excerpt was clever, and appeared well suited to the acting styles of the cast. The performance by an energetic and Ariel by Lithmal Jayawardhana was a treat to watch as it contributed to the flow of the performance. However, the play was slightly lacking in consistency as seen in occasional lapses in timing and intensity.
Lyceum International School entertained the audience immensely with a witty and spirited performance of A Comedy of Errors. From start to finish, theirs was a slick, smart and well paced performance. There was an unfortunate tendency to succumb to the temptation of introducing elements of bawdy and slapstick humour, but as the actors did not neglect the more subtle with of the play, the occasional ham acting did not adversely affect the performance.
The performances by the two Dromio’s was strong and well deserving of the award for the Best Male Supporting Role. Overall, the performance was pleasing to watch with good interaction between all the characters and a sense of having gelled together well.
As has been argued before, The Merchant of Venice is an extremely dubious comedy, and Royal College with its excerpt chose not to look into any aspects of humour. The thirty minute performance which focused on the bond story and Shylock’s battle against Antonio and Christians, was an intense, evocative portrayal of Shylock. Although getting off to a slightly shaky and not wholly convincing start, the portrayal improved by leaps and bounds and effectively brought out the torment of the Jew, and finished off with the touching pathos following the harsh verdict imposed on him. This too was a strong performance with consistency on the part of both the lead and supporting roles.
Four well matched performances, and it goes without saying that judges Maura Doran and Peter Thompson had a hard task in making the subjective decision of who would walk away with the trophy. |
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