Miss Elsom (Drama, Theatre and Events Technician)

‘You can take COVID, but leave the Cannoli!’

Next week sees our amazing Year 9 cast and crew perform their adapted version of Shakespeare’s classic King Lear. Using the iconic The Godfather movie as inspiration, Director, Mrs Horton, explains how she came to the decision to transpose the play to the world of the Sicilian Mafia: “The original King Lear is a play about political authority and family dynamics which, when I read it, immediately sparked links with the Sicilian Mafia families. The play questions loyalty throughout”.

Mrs Horton went on to explain that she wanted “to explore the power of women in a traditionally patriarchal hierarchy. Both the original King Lear and The Godfather are famously male dominated but we wanted to investigate the impact of having women in those positions of power and to explore the nuances of the relationships between women and how they might excerpt control similarly or differently to their male counterparts.”

Mrs Horton finally reflected: “It has been such a privilege to work with a group of extremely talented students on this project, which has very much been a collaborative process with the cast taking ownership of decisions from blocking to costume. Their ideas have been at the heart of each dramatic choice so I do hope you enjoy watching the outcome of their imagination!”