A Mid Summer Night's Dream
NCBIS Drama Department has just presented its most ambitious project yet; a
1980s musical version of Shakespeare's 16th Century play, "A Midsummer
Night's Dream". Using the original verse but adding modern costume and subtle
adaptations of 1980s iconic songs, the audience was delighted by a humorous
blend of quick lines, outrageous puns, musical interludes, innuendo and creative
choreography. After our popular and well-acclaimed productions of "Honk" and
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", there was such a demand for audition spots
that Head of Drama, Amanda Laragione, and Director of Performance, Joseph
Szalay, decided on an equally ambitious double cast, and effectively two distinct
productions of the same theatre! Performed in December, it literally became a
Mid Winter Night's Dream, with all expectations exceeded, students emerging
with smiles that would make a Cheshire cat envious, and the staff so proud of our
creative and wonderful students, from backstage, frontstage, prop designers,
stage band for their live accompanying music, as well as the casts themselves.
Wonderful, energetic, creative, cultured, and above all, FUN!
A synopsis of the NCBIS production:
Theseus, Duke of Athens (Joshua Aubrey and Finley Mathe), is preparing for his
forthcoming marriage with Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, (Nicole Stark).
Hippolyta is seen as rather a materialistic young lady, and Nicole enthralled us
with a convincing and powerful version of Madonna's "Material Girl", backed by
the NCBIS Stage Band, directed by Head of Music, Rebekah Thompson.
Joshua
Nicole
Finley
The plot then thickens as Toula (Aniek Blok and Nour Tewfik) and her daughter
Hermia (Charlotte-Marie Bien Betourné and Nour Soufrakis) march into court
with Demetrius and Lysander. Toula expects Hermia to marry Demetrius, but in
fact the former is in love with Lysander and they plan to escape Athens together.
Aniek
Nour T.
Charlotte-Marie
Nour S.
Confused? Perhaps complicated to modern viewers, but the story goes further!
They make the mistake of telling Helena (Georgina Taeger and Hoda El Sayed)
about the enlopement, but as Helena is in love with Demetrius, she thinks she
can win him over by informing him of the planned escape.
Georgina and Hoda
played Helena, and
enchanted us with
their
magnificent
voices and bubbly
personalities! Why
wouldn't Demetrius
be head over heels?
Demetrius chases after them into the woods, with Helena close behind! The
woods are of course enchanted by Fairy Queens, Oberon and Titania, as well as
Oberon's servant Puck. With the help of a magical flower, love potion is spread
on the eyes of our heroes, who awaken to fall in love with the first person/figure
they see - including in Titania's case, a donkey -headed High-schooler called
Bottom!
Niels Geyskens and
Adil Latif, enthralled us
with their rendition of
"Bottom", bewitched
by Puck with a
Donkey's Head.
Pierre and Wout (Lysander) and Toon and Louis ( Demetrius)
"All's well that ends well" of course, both in Shakespearian and modern times,
and all the spells are undone, the pucks ask the audience for forgiveness and
urge them to remember the play as if it had all been a dream!
Hannah and Zaina (Titania)
Rashal and Agathe (Oberon)
Aoife and Jamielia (Pucks)
Malaka and Rachel (Fairy Queen)
A memorable dream at that, with a crescendo of music and all on stage singing
Queen's "Crazy little thing called love", followed by the encore of Bon Jovi's apt
"you give love a bad name". It was over far too quickly as we were all
mesmerised by the power, quality and creativity of the performance - both days
quite distinct of course, but equally impressive.
We would like to thank our performers for the months of preparation, their
enthusiasm, the additional learning beyond their important external exam
syllabi (many in their second or third language of course), their readiness to
learn and translate their Shakespearian lines, and of course for their team work,
poise, stage manner, resilience and willingness to accept a real challenge. More
than anything, we would like to thank them for the unforgettable performances
they produced for us, their smiles, creativity and special NCBIS desire to "bring
out the best in everyone."
In no particular order, we would like to thank:
Role
December 5th
Helena
Georgina Taeger
Hermia
Charlotte-Marie Bien
Betourné
December 6th
Hoda El Sayed
Nour Soufrakis
Lysander
Demetrius
Theseus
Toula
Hypolita
Tatania
Oberon
The Pucks
Fairy
Bottom
Wout Van Dyck
Toon de Melker
Joshua Aubrey
Aniek Blok
Nicole Stark
Hannah Jaffrey
Agathe Jreijiri
Aoife O'Neill and Jamielia
Stark
Malaka Badr
Niels Geyskens
Pierre Thienpont
Louis Thienpont
Finley Mathe
Nour Tewfik
Nicole Stark
Zaina Morad
Rahsal Buijze
Aoife O'Neill and Jamielia
Stark
Rachel Williams
Adil Latif
"High School Players": Rym Abbas, Selin Erkutlu, Marguerite Julia, Farida
Khedr, Sien de Melker, Nine Nieman, Chloe Rockingham, Lara Salem.
Fairy Ensemble: Zeina El Deeb, Clara Hoehlmueller, Ali Likhwide, Mariam
Salama.
Stage Band: Rebekah Thompson, Kate Banks, Lana Ben Halim, Karim Salama,
Nader Sohby, Matthieu Thienpont.
Props, Costumes and lighting:
Suha Ahmed, Rahaf Al Mady, Astrid Bjorlin Hansen, Emma Capelani, Clarissa
Carrizo, Caterina Karidis, Jijun Kim, Anna Mukai, Maciel Nathalia, Sofia Piza, Lara
Salem, Farida Shady, Shivonne Stevens, Nicole Van Breugel, Felix Vikoler, Selma
Younis, Tamara Youssef; staff Alex Sherlock, Kevin Rossall and Ihab Iskander
Finally, special thanks to Hoda, Malaka, Aniek, Georgina, Wout, Pierre, Louis, and
Matthieu for the many very special performances they have given us, as they
leave NCBIS this year. May their musical and theatrical dream continue, and not
just in Mid Summer!
Copies of the Performance photographs are available at the Secondary Office.
Graham Hurrell, Head of Secondary School.