An electrifying performance of the play The Elephant Man was given to a packed audience of students in the Globe Theatre on Thursday 14th November by the Performance Exchange Company from the UK as part of their tour of South-East Asia. The play, based on the book by Frederick Treves and the Oscar-winning film of the same name, inspired rapt attention from the young audience followed by searching questions to the actors in the question and answer session afterwards.
The play, which focused on the story of the hideously deformed John Merrick and the appalling treatment he received in Victorian England, concentrated the minds of the young audience on the urgent issues of prejudice and minorities rights such as that experienced by Roma people and handicapped children in Eastern European orphanages.
The play was central to the work currently being led by Mr Timothy Spear in the Enrichment classes and our students will be reflecting on the performance in their Global Citizenship diaries and with further discussion and debate already taking place on the Nord Anglia Education Global Classroom.
Paul Crouch, Assistant Principal – Community and Student Enrichment commented, “Bringing in outside experts help us to enrich our curriculum and enables our students to reflect on world issues through the use of the Global Citizenship Diaries and the Nord Anglia Education Global Classroom.”
One year 8 student said after the performance, “The performance was so powerful it made me cry. How can people be treated in such an unjust way? We should never stop thinking about and caring for people worse off than ourselves in today’s world.”
Daniel Foley in the role of Frederick Treves answers the eager questions from the Regents students.
(L to R) Actors Nigel Miles-Thomas, Paul Haley, Robin Berry; and Caroline O’Hara.
