At the beginning of the month Wren Academy staged its very first performance outside. The set was the playground. The props were the flowers, the gazebo and even a metal lamppost. It was an exclusive summer performance for Year 10, by Year 10, with a cast of 17 performing a 30-minute condensed version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.  Key scenes ranged from ‘Do you bite your thumb Sir?’ and ‘Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ to the fatal, final moments in the tomb. It was directed by Ms Forrester and Mr Smith to enhance the Year 10 English GCSE Shakespeare module.

For almost two months, the dedicated cast rehearsed outside whatever the weather: in the blistering heat or pouring rain.  Rehearsals contained a variety of activities, such as choreographing ballroom dancing, perfecting sombre soliloquies and sword fighting with a professional from WAC Arts Centre. In addition to the unique natural setting, the show also featured three pairs of star-crossed lovers instead of one. Sam Seabrook and Jakaya Jenkins saw love at first sight at the masquerade ball,  Shanuk Wickramaratna and Costanza Desiata questioned their lineage over the balcony, and Maddy Fisher and Jack Medlin succumbed to their fate in the end.

Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side on the day of the performance, with a forecast of intermittent downpours. We had stormy talks but decided the show must go on!  A hundred chairs were arranged in amphitheatre fashion around the raised platform of the playground; red and white ribbons were entwined around posts and our cast were adorned in fresh roses and crests to represent their house: red for Montague and white for Capulet.

Despite the inclement weather that saw periods of both audience and actors subjected to driving rain, the show was a hit. The actors were professional on stage and off, which was no mean feat given that there was no offstage - the actors were stood stationary in plain view of all.

The audience laughed, gasped, were transfixed and suitably impressed by the fights performed by Tybalt (Finlay Thompson), Mercutio (Ollie Browne) and our third Romeo (Jack Medlin). One audience member commented, “it’s even better than the film!”.

And all that in just half an “hours’ traffic of our stage”.