Year 5 & 6 Perform Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at the Egg Theatre

This term the Junior School has been taking part in a very exciting initiative, culminating in a cast and crew of Year 5 and 6’s performing an abridged, 30-minute version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet at the egg theatre in Bath yesterday evening, as part of the Shakespeare Schools Festival.   

The Festival is organised by The Shakespeare Schools Foundation (SSF), a cultural education charity seeking to provide transformative experiences through Shakespeare, who hold the world’s largest Youth Drama Festival every Autumn. All around the country, weeks of preparation finish in an exhilarating evening performance at a professional theatre during the latter part of November. It is an exciting project to be involved with, not only onstage as performers but also in technical theatre working on lighting and sound.

Inbetween their rehearsals and the performance itself, the Junior School 28-strong cast and crew also attended a workshop at the egg theatre as part of the initiative, led by theatre professionals from the Foundation.  SSF worked with the whole company to develop the performance and gave tips and tricks to take back into rehearsals. On the day of the performance, the children spent the afternoon at the egg for a final dress rehearsal and then the stage was set for them to perform in front of family and friends.  And what a performance it was! 

So much confidence was on display as the children delivered the Shakespearean play in a memorable performance.  Emotionally charged throughout, as the Houses of Capulet and Montague clashed, or Romeo or Juliet met for their famous balcony scene, our young actors and actresses all played their parts with huge amounts of passion (sometimes deadly!) and commitment and rose to the challenge of acting on a professional stage - a first for most of them. 

Soon after the performance we spoke to Mrs Heaney, who said:  "I couldn’t be more proud of the cast and crew of Romeo & Juliet who performed in The Egg theatre on Wednesday evening. Each and every child came to rehearsals every Tuesday with enthusiasm, dedication and bubbling over with ideas. After only eight weeks, the children produced an inspiring performance showing their understanding of a difficult Shakespearean text, their unity as a company of players and their talent to bring a play to life, with maturity, on a professional stage. A HUGE thank you to the amazing Alice White who gave up so much of her time to work with the children on this project, to all the parents and teachers who supported us along the way and of course, to the most important people of all, the children. You were absolute STARS! Well done!"

You can view a gallery of images from the performance