Boys have their ‘15 minutes’ as House Drama Competition takes to the stage

The Lent Term saw the launch of a new House Drama Competition, Fifteens. Boys were handed the challenge of producing their own piece – a scene from a published play, an adaptation or an original piece of writing – which could be no longer than 15 minutes.

Houses came up with a variety of entertaining and thought-provoking performances, ranging from an absurdist piece of mime to amended film scripts and versions of classic plays including Edward II and The History Boys.

As part of the competition, boys also had to respond to a general theme of ‘Nothing changes if nothing changes’.

The 12 plays, staged over two nights of heats at the School’s EM Forster Theatre, were whittled down to four finalists. The judges were James Fisher, Deputy Head Co-Curricular; Dr Jonathan Reinhardt, Head of English; Kat Portman-Smith, Theatre Manager, and Gavin Bruce, Director of Theatre.

The final was judged by former Tonbridge pupil Seb Fear (SH 11-16), a professional film and stage actor currently appearing in Between a Man and Woman at the Bread and Roses Theatre in London.

The four finalists included Welldon House, with a moral tale of bullying, Standing By, directed by Tom Metcalfe (WH2); Cowdrey House, with an adaptation of the Netflix blockbuster Don’t Look Up, directed by Felix Burnett (CH4), and Parkside with An Inspector Calls, directed by Toby Carrie (PS3).

Whitworth won the contest with a comically rewritten and updated version of Oedipus Rex, directed by Harry Lang (WW4) and Jack Isted (WW4).

Gavin Bruce said: “Congratulations to all participants for such an impressive range of imaginative work, and I am already looking forward to seeing 12 new plays next year.”