The Queen Must Die is a farcical comedy set the night before the Queen's Jubilee procession in a small town. A giant papier mache statue of the Queen will dominate the procession & becomes the focus for 2 groups of teenagers who have their own reasons for wanting it destroyed. The lads belong to the anti-monarchy group the 'Popular Republican Front' and want to destroy the statue as a symbolic act of defiance against the 'establishment'. The girls, well, they have a serious fashion situation they need to resolve in order to hold on to their credibility. All they need to do is go to the house where the statue is being kept and get past the babysitter..Shaun 'the lips' Digby. This was a demanding production that involved some fast, physical comedy centred around a giant statue of the Queen. The statue, which dominates the stage throughout, was created by Emma Gibbons and Angharad Smith.
Early Man is a drama set in a museum. A school group visit the local museum for the day. Largely unsupervised, they explore the displays (ancient history versus 20th century modern classics & popular culture), argue, fight, flirt, occasionally do some school work and one of the central characters, Sam, discovers a lot more than she expected from the central display in the archaeology section - a 2,000 year-old bog boy. This is a rather surreal and touching drama exploring the various kinds of relationships within the group - friendship, romance, peer-pressure, isolation, betrayal - it's all there. This production involves a cast of 14 and the main character is a museum exhibit! The set required a strange mix of ancient and new, paying homage to Salvador Dali (with the re-creation of his 'Mae West Lips Sofa'), pop art and ancient relics. The creation of the 'Bog Boy' (played by Ellie Scott), was our biggest challenge!
Bog Boy ... Ellie Scott
Sam ... Grace Parker
Louise ... Alice Massey
Becky ... Jodie Mahner
Mr Museum ... Matthew Oliver
Dan ... Ben Marshall
Lucy ... Lucy Parker
Teri ... Abby Regan
Liam ... Liam Stobart
Jamie ... Alex Matthews
Emily ... Joanna Handley
Tash ... Helen Albert
Lisa ... Steph Cresswell
Sarah ... Emily Bolton
Shannon ... Angharad Smith
Lisa ... Emma Gibbons
Sandra (Ronnie) ... Scarlett O'Donnell
Darren ... Ollie Edgar
Mad Mike ... Josh Raven
Billy ... Ben Marshall
Shaun 'The Lips' Digby ... Joe Rolt
Sound ... Jim Rolt
Lighting ... Hugh Farey & Toby Whittle-Williams
Stage Manager ... Graham Shortland
Stage Crew...Joyce Marshall, Hetty Scott, Barbara Hockley, Jim Rolt, Hugh Farey, Matt Mckenna
Directed & Designed by Barbara Hockley
Set Construction … Jim Rolt, David Hugman, Graham Shortland, Barbara Hockley, Hetty Scott, Alison Stobart
The 'dog' dresses in The Queen created by Jenny Shortland
Bog Boy costume/make-up by Hetty Scott, Barbara Hockley & Joyce Marshall, with special thanks to Karen Neilson for advice and materials.
The Queen Statue was created by Emma Gibbons and Angharad Smith with support from Hugh Farey and Lisa Gwilliam
The incredible 'Lips Sofa' was constructed by Jim Rolt & upholstered
by Martin Greaves of Bromyard (thanks to Salvador Dali for the design…)
Pat O'Donnell for the excellent poster design
Peter Frampton for photos throughout rehearsals
Corin Harper for the intro music to 'The Queen'
Matt Mckenna for attending loads of rehearsals and helping out on stage whenever possible
Conor Stobart for the amazing 'Jackson Pollock' painting
Ben Marshall & Angharad Smith for some quality abstract paintings
Ann Smith for giving heaps of time and expertise to devise a cunning plan to make the 'Bog Boy' talk strangely.
Lisa Gwilliam for giant statue ideas and support (and for housing it in her Art Room at QEHS during construction)
Everyone who contributed items for display in the museum and non-breakable props for 'The Queen' (some weren't as non-breakable as we thought….)
Click any thumbnail to see a larger version
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