Year 12 Drama students at saltash.net have performed an exceptional piece of theatre as part of their final AS practical assessment. Joe Day, Jasmine Donovan, Megan Easton, JJ Harding and Jessica Jones selected Joan Littlewood’s 1963 Theatre Workshop play ‘Oh! What A Lovely War’ to interpret and update.
The play chronicles the story of the First World War through short scenes and provocative songs of the era. The Year 12 students imagined themselves to be a group of street performers, presenting the story to passers-by – the audience. After the jolly, happy opening song, their tale grew darker and more sombre with an increasing focus on the massive loss of life during the first world war.
Jo Loyn, Head of Drama, said, ‘The students have worked extremely hard developing the piece since we began working on it in January. All five students are outstanding performers and this enabled us to create an ensemble piece which captured the essence of the original company of sixteen people. Reducing this to a cast of five enabled them to use their skills in switching from character to character, changing accent, age and sometimes from male to female, in exemplary style.’