|
Cobham Hall School Website: Recent School Events It was standing room only for the final performance at Cobham Hall of the school’s production of the Scottish Play on Saturday 24 March.
Many parents, students and staff were seeing the play for the second time – giving an added sense of expectancy to the more dramatic moments. Head of Drama at Cobham Hall, Kym Martin, always manages to come up with a new and exciting idea for the annual school production. This year was something very special, as she had decided to use the dramatic setting of Cobham Hall itself to provide the backdrop for a production of Macbeth, performed in promenade style.
The witches, not ‘withered hags’, but nubile sirens, dressed all in white with darkened eyes and red lipstick, directed, lured and guided the audience, following the action from scene to scene.
The audience entered the darkened Drama Studio, stepping past, and sometimes over, huddled forms on the floor. One by one the witches jolted into life, their sing-song voices predicting the coming tale of bloody murder and treachery. The scene was set and the characters finely drawn – King Duncan’s misplaced trust, Macbeth’s desire for greatness, fired by the witches’ prediction, and Lady Macbeth’s overwhelming ambition.
Drawn by the witches insistent ‘follow us!’ the audience moved into the Entrance Hall, its vaulted stone ceiling lit by candles.
Looking up the massive granite staircase, where stood Macbeth with a bloody dagger in each hand, the audience needed little convincing that above them lay the murdered Duncan.
Outside, the bridge over the entrance archway provided the setting for Banquo’s treacherous murder, with gasps from the audience below as he slumped dramatically over the railing.
The final scenes were played out in the magnificent Gilt Hall, where most of the audience found themselves seated on the floor in the middle of the room, truly in the centre of the action, with scenes acted around the room and on the balconies at either end, and finishing with the final fatal sword fight between Macbeth and Macduff.
This ambitious style of production presents stimulating challenges for the actors, as the traditional barrier between audience and performer is abandoned, and members of the company mingle with the audience and direct movement between locations. At some stages of the production, scenes were played within inches of the surrounding audience.
This exciting project was thoroughly appreciated by all who were involved in it – cast, supporting company and audiences. |
