The Green House Play

The Green House Play this year was the contemporary play, Bull written by Mike Bartlett.

The play centres around a workplace and a fight for survival between three employees, one of whom knows they will get the sack.  Two of the employees gang up on one, and to our dismay after forty minutes of intense oppression, the victim of the piece does indeed lose their position.  Walt Disney this was not, with no happy ending in sight for the protagonist, it was still a highly moving and very effective piece of drama.  The fact that it was so effective was further heightened by the fact that it was directed by a member of the Upper Sixth, Ben Dickins (U6c), who did an incredible job with his small cast of four, to produce a range of well-observed but highly realistic characters who moved around the stage like they were professionals. 

Overall, it was an excellent piece of acting work, with Ru Kure (5c) playing the victim of the bullying as a highly idiosyncratic misfit with an incredible level of realism and feeling.  I was highly moved by his performance, which coming from a fifth former was absolutely knockout.  Patrick Reynolds(L6c) was also very good as one of the narcissistic workplace bullies, a role that he played with a huge amount of confidence and self-assured swagger.  Kit Delamain(U6c) did good service in the role of the employer and Frances Cattermull from Sherborne Girl’s School was an excellent partner-in-crime to Reynolds.

I think it is great that the drama in the school is so varied that it offers both quantity and quality, and this was certainly a performance of the latter variety.  Congratulations to The Green on such a well-conceived and polished piece of work.

Ian Reade
Head of Drama