Following on from our Shakespeare Schools Festival film of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, we produced not one, not two but three productions this term. Ms Hinchliffe, our Director-in-Residence, directed a marvellous version of The Little Mermaid with Year 7-9 pupils (see report here). We then undertook a double bill of productions with two happening in the same week! Mr Campbell directed The Government Inspector, based on the play by Nikolai Gogol. It was Tormead’s first ever all-male production (!) and tells the comical story of how corrupt town officials panic, mistaking a nobody for a powerful government inspector. It featured a couple of song and dance routines and was comically acted by a talented bunch of Year 8-10 students to highlight the key theme of female empowerment.

The other production was a new play called Home, I’m Darling by Laura Wade and featured a small but gifted cast from Year 11 and Sixth Form. It was beautifully directed and designed by our Lower Sixth A-Level Drama cohort, Sophia, Evie and Bee, and took place in the JCS Auditorium. This powerful and darkly humorous new play invited us to examine gender roles across the decades, and the cracks still present in our 21st century, as one couple attempted to live a 1950s lifestyle. It was an amazing achievement for the Lower Sixth directors and a very fitting swansong for our Upper Sixth cast members in their final Tormead production.

Mr Ashley Campbell, Head of Drama