Chronicle Summer 2024

27 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Aniyah Samuel as Titania, Harry Frost as Oberon and Katie Gill as Puck

Head of Drama, Kat Eden, writes:

On a warm summer evening, with the meadows and trees of Oxford looking especially verdant and the hum of bees from Teddies very own hives drifting across on the breeze, we staged Shakespeare’s magical comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream on the school fields. Our performance celebrated the 100th anniversary of Laurence Olivier, a pupil at the school, treading the boards of the Dining Hall in the iconic role of Puck.

as they sat on their picnic blankets sipping lemonade. Occasionally a mischievous fairy took the opportunity to leave the stage and join the picnickers. Our casting reflected the ethos of inclusivity at the heart of the Teddies Drama department giving opportunities to pupils of all ages. Hermia (Ottilie Heath), Hippolyta (Orla Lane-Nott) and Bottom (Ollie Mutton) were played by pupils in the Shell, as were the Mechanicals (Max Futrille, Inigo Atchison, Cecilia Goar, Kit Chronias and Anya Gorokhovska) and some of the Fairies (Bella Laing, Saskia McEwen, Georgia

Our production was set in the 1920s, the decade when Olivier was at the school. Much has changed since then. Our Puck (Katie Gill), a Shell, is one of hundreds of girls to have joined the school since 1983 when we first embraced co-education, and she played this fun yet demanding role with enthusiasm and flair. The cast, made up of boys and girls from the Shell to Sixth Form, seemed to be having fun in the sunny, open-air setting as they tackled the verse and comedy of the text. The occasional aside addressed to the audience helped make them feel part of the show,

Ottilie Heath as Hermia with Charlie Hutton as Demetrius

Gibb). The Lovers - Demetrius (Charlie Hutton), Lysander (Luca Palmer-Endean) and Helena (Yasmin Wolcough) - and two other Fairies (Poppy Luttrell-Hunt and Daisy Martin) were experienced performers