1979 School Magazine

"LADY PRECTOUS STREAMT:. ln the first term of this year, the 5th and 6th Form E.E.A. Drama students were faced with the pr.ospect of putting on a Chinese play Fortunatety it had been.iranstiteO O! the author S.l. Hsiung into English, which mede our task slightly easier. The play is a light comedy written to be per:tormed in the true tradition of Chinese theatre. This ib- what,we attemp- ted, under the direction of Miss Anne:Mqr1e O'Sullivan. Fortunately the half-completed gym complex and bare stage proved to be just what we needed (?). Chinese theatre, and this play is no exception, calls foi an empty stage, with the exception of two property.men and a pro- perty box. For those who missed the p-erforlmance, the property men (girls really) attended to the needs of the actresses, providing seats, swords, saki, and safe arms if anyone decided to faint. Unfortunately it wasn't difficult to miss the actual perfor- mance as, due to other end of term commitments, it was only possible to present the play on one evening. All, who either saw it or worked in it, wiil agree, that "Lady Precious Stream" was an outstanding and unex- pected success. This was due, in no small way, to,the many people who helped us. Once again;,we must thank Miss O'Sullivan for her super-human effort, and we must give a special mention to Mrs. Bain for the beautiful costumes she produced for us and to Miss Boyd and her group of girls who arranged all of the properties. Judging by continuous laughter rippling through the au- dience and the raucous singing from the cast after the performance, a good time was certainly had by all. Wendy Armstrong.

THE MAD WOMAN OF CHAILLOT Following the success of "Lady Precious Stream", a new group of E.E.A. girls spent second term in preparing a production of "The Mad Woman of Chaillot", by Jean Giraudoux. Once again, despite Miss O'Sullivan's good intentions, there was the usual panic in the last few weeks of term, when everyone really pulled together in an effort to make opening night on time. Fortunately, there was time this term to allow for two performances of the play on the new stage in the gymnasium, and this really seemed to make all the work worthwhtle. The whole cast enjoyed the play immensely, as did the audiences. The four mad women themselves, played by Fiona Sinnamon, Suzanne Nussey, Caroline Kennison and Rebecca Riggs, were especially appealing characters, dressed as they were in their own unique style of period dress and conversing in such precise and witty dialogue as they did. The minor characters, in- cluding the street singer, waiter, rag picker, deaf mute and the peddlar were also very distinctive and added a touch of reality to the French street cafe scene. On behalf of the cast, I would like to thank Miss O'Suliivan, Mrs. Bain, Mrs. Kennison, Miss Boyd and Mr. Rowellfor allthe time and effort they put in, in helping to make this play a success, and I hope that having witnessed this very success, future E.E.A. groups will do all in their power to continue, if not to improve upon, the annual dramatic productions. Angela Brown.