2010 Productions
An Evening of Myths and Mythology
by Franck Bilau, parent
In what is now established as a SIS tradition, the 6e Anglophones performed several short plays at the Collège Jean Moulin, directed by Vicki Salmon, Ruairi McCann and Candi Buxton. As the tradition goes, the parents wait outside the closed doors, feel the excitement mounting, hear the shrieks of laughter and the last orders from the plays’ directors.
Before entering the realm of Greek mythology, the audience wondered at the Queen’s croquet match, from ‘Alice in Wonderland’. This was the perfect transition into a world of fantasy where clubs were live flamingos, balls were hedgehogs and the croquet was played by the Queen of Hearts and her deck of courtiers.
From this mindboggling point, we sailed firmly to Greece, starting with ‘Odysseus’ Odyssey’. As Odysseus navigated his way back to Ithaca, we glimpsed this famous tale from his companions’ point of view. As it turns out, the man was rather infatuated with himself whilst his crew did the job and were the unsung heroes of the day.
‘The Race to Live’ is the story of Zeus’ trials and errors to create the human race. He tries unsuccessfully first a gold then silver and finally a bronze and iron race. Prometheus saves the day with humble mud, perfect for the god’s self esteem.
‘The war of the sexes’ was set in ancient Greece. This tale of domestic tensions was all tongue in cheek with obvious pleasure from the cast at poking their parents where it hurts. If men were clearly from Mars, women were from between Venus and a hard place!
‘Stolen Fire’ depicted Prometheus’ successful attempt at bringing fire to humanity. In this story behind the myth, we laughed at a pitiful group of humans eating cold food and hitting each other in the dark until their hero brought them light and warmth.
Finally, in ‘Pandora’s Box’, we were reminded about the cost of envy and excessive curiosity. As the – rather large – box opened, it delivered a motley crew of anger, pain, envy, disease and, of course, Death.
Each short play was challenging due to the difficulty of the text, and, as always with comedy, the precision of the timing. The sixièmes successfully delivered punchy lines and well timed comic bursts, highlighting once again the virtues of learning by heart.
Dernière modification le 22-10-10 par
