Summer is the best season for the Bard: Shakespeare in the park, the open air, stuffed picnics baskets and chilled glasses. Blue skies over Sandy Lodge this week heralded the much-anticipated Lower School Drama Production, Seasons of Shakespeare, where 25 of Taylors’ youngest and finest actors drew us towards the Drama Studio.
The peerless Savio Gimmi has once again graced the space with rough magic, while his fellow wizards – Anay G, Krishen P, Samuel H, Lu’ay Ben A, Yuvan N – conjured their tech savvy spells, which only served to enhance this beguiling evening.
Ryan S and Eliyaan J were our authoritative guides throughout the performance, deftly steering us from one famous play to the next, with historical, comical, and tragical vignettes of their own peppering the interludes. Despite the familiarity of many of the works, these young actors brought a fresh quality to their performances, so that one often felt one was meeting an old familiar friend who has changed somewhat since you last met him. The high standard was set by the first duologue – the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet – with the charismatic and versatile Sami M, last seen in Our Day Out, offering a confident, engaging Romeo, blithely assuring a fearful, pragmatic Juliet – the remarkable Leo M, in an auspicious debut at the Studio – that neither walls nor guards were a match for him. The tension created by this scene was punctured artfully by Leo B who delivered Jaques’ tragicomic “Seven Ages of Man” speech, replete with mewling babies and mewling old men, too. Recently, a student said to me, without irony, that I was “nearing the end of my life,” so this piece particularly hit home.
Another scene from As You Like It followed, yet again on the theme of troubled love, with Markus F appearing as an energetic, appealing Orlando seeking a cure for his desperate longing from the disguised Rosalind, a captivating Noah S. The Forest of Arden provided the backdrop for these lovers, after which, we were back in the woods for one of Shakespeare’s most loved plays – and a summer favourite at Taylors’ – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in a splendid rendering by the talented cast, comprised of Zachary G as Bottom, Dylan M as Titania, Shaurjesh as Peaseblossom, Zayaan K as Cobweb, Ethan V as Moth, and Hassan F as Mustardseed Leo, Shaurjesh, Zayaan, and Hassan returned to perform Puck in four parts, a delightful innovation in this playful evening, that also bravely tackled Shakespeare’s most famous speech, “To be, or not to be,” in an affecting choric recitation – perhaps the youth of the performers added particular poignancy. It was that kind of evening, full of shade and light, the latter coming in the form of Rishi K savagely brilliant Malvolio, dancing around the stage in his yellow stockings to the horror of Daniel Z, dazzling as Olivia, and the multi-talented Evyavan A as a mischievous Feste.
Our narrators, Ryan and Eliyaan, returned to remind us of the darker episodes in Shakespeare’s own life, and how his mature tragedies reflect complex and timeless themes. Suddenly, our narrators were transformed into the hapless “grooms” in Macbeth, accosted by Dhruv K’s vivid Lady Macbeth, glorying in and terrified by her own audacity, while Mahir S’ masterly Macbeth attempts to come to terms with the full horror of his actions. As the knocking at the “south entry” shook us in our seats, an exigent and powerful Krish P as Lear raged at the elements, before sorcerer Sulaiman K restored order, reminding us that these illusions “are such stuff as dreams are made on.” All’s well that ends well in this enchanting production by Cheryl Clarke, with the final words rightly given by various Pucks, in the multifaceted forms of Yusif O, Eddie H, Ethan V, Zayaan K, Arjun U, and Pranav M. Indeed, we did not “slumber” as “these visions” appeared before us, such was the energy and commitment of this accomplished band of players.
An ambitious evening from a gifted cast who are certainly men for all seasons.
Mr Alan Richardson
