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TWENTY-FIVE students of St Christopher's School are spending many of their afternoons rehearsing their senior school drama production. The youngest member in the cast is 12-years-old and the oldest is 17, writes Anasuya Kesavan.
Entitled 'The Black Remote', the play, written by Glyn Maxwell, is from the UK's National Theatre Connections 2007, a portfolio of 60-minute scripts for teenage actors written by British playwrights.
The school's young cast is led by their director and head of drama, Antony Thomas who said that the play is a modern retelling of the Greek mythology, Pandora's Box.
"Initially I enjoyed the witty dialogue, characters and fantastical creatures of the play. Afterwards, however, it was the message about the world that we live in and the gentle criticism of a society where nobody seems to care about anything other than being famous for 15 minutes on TV," elaborated Mr Thomas.
"The insanity of rampant consumerism and the irresponsible wielding of power by ideologues spoiling for a fight are also strong themes in the piece. The clever thing is that the play never preaches a utopian ideal or gets too bogged down in these murky themes.
"It tends to represent them in a humorous way, preferring to lampoon rather than criticise, resorting to farce and quick fire dialogue with excellent wordplay which all emphasize the absurdity of these aspects of modern society," he said.
The 'chest' at the heart of the Pandora's Box is replaced by a massive television set that symbolises the elements of the modern society, not all of which are good. "One of the messages about the play is that TV makes us passive receivers rather than active participants. We are all just too eager to just watch things happening rather than shape events ourselves," said Mr Thomas.
"At the end of the day it is a cracking yarn about a TV set and some children who could have changed the world. Always at the end there is a hope which is the last thing to leave the box in the original story and the one thing that Polly (one of the main characters) leaves us at the end of 'The Black Remote'," he said.
Teamwork and collaboration lies at the heart of putting together a production of this scale, said Mr Thomas. He is supported by his department colleague Charlie Thomas at the rehearsals. While the Art department is designing the enormous TV set and the elaborate costumes, the technical team comprising of four school students are controlling the sound and lights. Pink Floyd's music and digital effects designed by Mr Thomas will be adding to the haunting nature of the play.
The publicity material was selected through an open design competition and a year-12 art student, Sophie Elassaad's graphic design was chosen. She along with Karim Mariey helps in training the younger students to enact their roles better.
The 16-year olds, Karim and Sophie, who act as statues said: "The play is full of symbols and people of different ages will interpret it differently. The younger audience will find it visually stimulating and the older audience will take back something with them. The story line is so deep, so relevant that it's scary."
Tom Blake, 14, who has the lead role of Norman, said: "Acting in this play makes me realise that the world is full of twists and turns and consequences. A butterfly flapping on this side of the wall can change everything happening on the other side of the world." Co-star Samrah Al Shawi, 16, added, "There is much more to the play than about a girl who opened a TV. Every time I rehearse or read the script I am able to look at the story differently."
Director Antony Thomas was a professional actor before taking on teaching as a career. He has been the head of drama department at St Christopher's for the last 7-years and this is his fourth major production. He lives in Bahrain with his acupuncturist wife Nicola and his two children Anya, six, and Mia, three.
'The Black Remote' will be performed on November 27, 28 and 29 at the drama hall at St Christopher's Senior School in Isa Town. Please contact the school on 17788155 for more details.
