Drama

We stage an impressive range of productions over the course of the academic year including a whole School play or musical in the Michaelmas Term, a Junior play, a Lower Sixth play and an Edinburgh Fringe play in the Summer Term, four or more House plays scattered through the year, as well as numerous exam performances in the Lent Term. We enter a Junior production into the Shakespeare’s Schools’ Festival and are looking to take a major production on tour in the near future.

We also run a creative writing course for boys in collaboration with top London theatres such as the Royal Court, the National and the Old Vic with the aim of getting scripts published and organise for boys to take part in workshops run by visiting actors, practitioners and theatre companies such as Frantic Assembly and Shared Experience.

With a range of theatre trips to London and beyond, as well as the annual trips to the National Student Drama Festival in Scarborough and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Drama department offers a wonderfully rich experience of theatre.

There are opportunities for involvement, irrespective of age or experience, with nine major productions in a year, plus a wide range of exciting workshops, professional shows and theatre trips. The EM Forster Theatre regularly welcomes visits from a variety of touring theatre companies as part of our wider Arts programme.

The annual main School production is a highlight of the School calendar. Past productions include musicals such as Les Misérables, Chess, Cabaret and Sweeney Todd, Shakespeare plays including Hamlet, Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing and straight plays such as The Outsiders and Shakespeare in Love. Recent Junior plays and Lower Sixth plays include A Moster Calls, Emil and the Detectives, The History Boys, Julius Ceasar and One Man Two Guvnors that have equally delighted audiences.

Pupils from local girls’ schools participate in almost all productions, and thrive in a positive, creative working environment alongside our boys. All our events are open to the public: tickets for shows, and for our extensive Arts programme, can be ordered via the box office system.

Independent Plays are directed by members of the Common Room to produce pupil-led performances, with boys working in all areas of theatre production. Other events include an annual Novi Shakespeare celebration lit by candelabra and the Novi Drama Society that produces a workshop production in the Michaelmas Term. 

In February, all twelve houses take part in an annual House Drama competition where boys write, directed, design and perform short scripts based on a theme.