By Mrs Graves (Head of English)

Wednesday morning saw the Assembly Hall transformed into BGS’s answer to the Globe, as Year 7 arrived in costume and full of enthusiasm to perform their version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We were joined by a fantastic audience of Year 5 pupils from the Junior School, who enjoyed their morning at a theatre unlike any they’d attended before!

Each class had prepared a section of the play to perform, and the students showed off their independence and creativity in adapting their scripts to suit their individual class performance styles. They had a little longer than Shakespeare’s original actors might have had to learn their scripts, but they have also been responsible for sourcing costumes and props to bring their scenes to life. As many students are keen to get involved and have speaking parts, Mrs Everitt had adapted the original material to create opportunities for everyone to take part, but the students had also added some of their own style and character, introducing modern language and perspectives, and in some cases even rap to complement the original source material.

In between the scenes, we were treated to some wonderful musical interludes from Bella Pringle and Annie Tadiello on the piano and clarinet respectively; thanks to Mr Atkins for the accompaniment. Congratulations as well to the winners of the competitions for writing a Shakespearean poem (Ayesha Bacon) and designing a shoebox version of Titania’s garden (Florence Sexton). 

During the rest of the day students were introduced to the popular Elizabethan instrument- the lute- via a video recorded by participants from the Dowland Youth Works and watched a fascinating falconry display provided by the local birds of prey experts, where they learnt a lot of facts about the birds, and notably that Shakespeare himself was probably responsible for the introduction of the phrase ‘twit twoo’ to describe the noise of an owl into common usage.

The morning was concluded with an Elizabethan style banquet. After a busy morning, the feast was well received and a lovely way to bring the festivities to an end.

View photos from the day here.