My five favourite plays
chosen by ...
Chris Whyld
Chris began his teaching career as a
geography teacher at Colfe’s School
in London, and went on to become
head of geography at Colombo
International School in Sri Lanka.
After a year Chris returned to the UK
and enrolled at a drama school in
London. He worked as an actor for ten
years, mainly on stage including the
National Theatre and tours of the UK
and Europe, before taking up a drama
teaching position at Kent College,
Pembury in September 2014.
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Julius Caesar
by William
Shakespeare
Oxford World’s Classics
ISBN 978-0-19-953612-2
Pornography
by Simon Stephens
Methuen Drama
ISBN 978-1-4081-1056-0
Cast Scope for 5 or more
Themes and issues
Cast 2 females, 11 males
Themes and issues The
Stephens wrote the play
in response to the July 2005 London
bombings. There are eight seemingly
unrelated monologues that chart
the lives of different individuals over
the days and hours leading up to the
atrocities. It captures the contradictions
of banality and intrigue in ‘everyday’
life set against the backdrop of the
7/7 bombings.
principal theme is that of power: ‘power
corrupts, and absolute power corrupts
absolutely’. Are the players acting in a
way that benefits the state, themselves,
or a combination of the two?
Performance matters To attempt to
perform the entirety of this play would
be a mighty task, therefore I’ve cut it
down to about an hour to present a
‘highlights of’ version. I’d recommend
doing the same or at least performing
sections, or duologues such as the Portia
and Brutus in the garden scene, which
in itself allows the actors to explore
so much.
Performance matters There is no
obvious way to perform this play and
it is completely open to the actors and
director to stage it in a way that appeals
to them. It’s possible to focus on one or
more of the characters, deconstruct text,
and experiment with lighting, music,
sound effects and projections.
Why it’s great There are many
modern comparisons that students
can relate to. Kevin Spacey’s Frank
Underwood (or Ian Richardson in the
original BBC version) in House of Cards is
very much Cassius, and Mark Rylance’s
recent turn as Thomas Cromwell in
Wolf Hall to me bore many Brutus traits.
You can set the play in various time
periods and locations. The setting of our
upcoming Year 12’s Julius Caesar will be
inspired by the Ukraine on the eve of the
2004 Orange Revolution. The charismatic
politician Yulia Tymoshenko was a key
orchestrator and she was later arrested,
‘deposed’ and imprisoned on corruption
charges – this will inform our ‘Julia’
Caesar in an all-female production.
Why it’s great Pornography is ideal
for students to devise with. There is
much opportunity for physical theatre
and we’ve used Steven Berkoff’s ‘in
yer face’ style of direct address and
his very specific stylised movement as
inspiration.
Watch out for However you use
this play, I think it’s important that
the tragedy and sadness are brought
out, therefore it must be handled with
sensitivity and compassion. There
are adult themes and subject matter
aplenty, so students are required to
respond maturely and appropriately.
Watch out for The assassination
scene has to be carefully (and safely)
choreographed. We were lucky enough
to have a fight director who did
some fantastic dagger work with the
conspirators to make Caesar’s final
moments look extremely realistic.
Robert Day
Pornography at the
Traverse Theatre Edinburgh
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Teaching Drama · Summer term 2 · 2014/15
www.teaching-drama.co.uk
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Look Back in
Anger
by John Osborne
Faber & Faber
ISBN 978-0-571-03848-0
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Loveplay
by Moira Buffini
Faber & Faber
ISBN 978-0-571-20983-5
Cast Scope for 6 or more
Themes and issues
Cast 2 females, 3 males
Themes and issues This is a class
is an old-fashioned struggle between
good and evil. What would happen if
children were let loose on an island?
Would it involve a descent into feral
savagery, a violent Darwinian struggle
for supremacy, or the blossoming of
order, democracy and civilisation?
perform in one or multiple scenes,
although it might be best to avoid
consecutive scenes that require an
impractical quick change. It can be very
simply and sparsely staged, the only
notion that needs to be conveyed is the
location remaining the same (though
it changes in appearance somewhat
over time).
performances have to be impassioned
and raw, with actors allowing emotions
to run free. Jimmy should be obnoxious,
vicious, sensitive and complex. Alison
is also a complex character, offering
opportunities for distance, reserve and
inner pain.
Why it’s great Actors can delve into
Performance matters Matthew
Bourne’s recent dance interpretation of
Lord of the Flies was utterly moving and
inspiring, and showed how it’s possible
to tell a story through movement alone.
Incorporating such large movement,
dance and tribal aspects to this play
helps enormously to convey the decline
into savagery.
Why it’s great This can be an
naturalism and being truthful on stage.
I’ve really enjoyed some recent off-script
backstory work which involved students
improvising how Alison and Jimmy first
met in a smoky 1950s London jazz club.
extremely funny play that students
really relate to and enjoy rehearsing
and performing. I’ve seen my Year 10
students take complete ownership of
not only their assigned roles, but of the
rehearsals and work we’ve completed
on character. One group devised an offscript Anglo-Saxon pagan ‘love’ ritual
that not only helped to inform their
scene, but was extremely entertaining
and compelling viewing.
Watch out for It may be difficult for
young performers to relate to Jimmy’s
world-weary bitterness and Alison’s
loneliness and pain. This is why lots of
discussion and characterisation work
are essential.
Why it’s great ‘Did you enjoy being
little savages?’ asked William Golding
after seeing the first performance of
his adapted novel. ‘Yeaahhhh!!’ was the
response in unison from the actors.
Watch out for We’re putting on an
all girls Lord of the Flies and we’ve been
asking ourselves the question, would
girls respond in the same way to boys
under such circumstances? In other
words, would an all-female group
become as violent as all boys? It’s a
question that we haven’t been able to
give a full and satisfactory answer to,
but we’re going to carry on regardless,
have the girls play girls rather than
playing boys, and explore the notion
further through the rehearsal process.
Watch out for There are adult themes
Roundabout Theatre Company take
on Osborne’s classic
by William Golding,
adapted for stage by
Nigel Williams
Cast 7 males, 10+ ensemble
Themes and issues Put simply, this
Performance matters Actors can
Performance matters The
Lord of the
Flies
Faber & Faber
ISBN 978-0-571-16056-3
Buffini presents ten short
scenes that span 2,000 years of history,
from Roman occupation to the present
day, in one London location. It covers
many themes and issues that we
associate with love and relationships
from oppression, abuse and brutality,
to freedom of expression, jealousy
and pain.
struggle play and the first of the ‘kitchen
sink’ social realism dramas which paved
the way for writers such as Shelagh
Delaney, Arnold Wesker, Harold Pinter
and Dennis Kelly. It’s an ‘angry young
man’ piece that explores the tensions
within relationships and between the
working and middle classes.
My five favourite plays
and references, which you may deem
to be inappropriate and want to edit.
There is also a naked man scene that we
overcame by having it implied behind
a screen.
www.teaching-drama.co.uk
Middlebury College’s
production of Loveplay
Tristram Kenton
Cha Tori
Joan Marcus
Matthew Bourne’s
dance version
Teaching Drama · Summer term 2 · 2014/15
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