Form 1 performed ‘Roman Britain Rewritten’, which was written by our Form 1 class and drama teacher with music by our Byron House music teacher. The children's production linked directly to their studies of Romans and Celts in class and built on their hands-on Roman Day workshop last term. Each class performed their own section of the production and, as well as acting, the children also sang a class song with moves choreographed by our specialist dance teacher..
‘Roman Britain Rewritten’ was performed 'in the round', with the audience seated on all sides of the stage. The children entered and exited through the audience, which was designed to make the audience feel more engaged and closer to the action. In parts of the production all three classes were either acting from the main stage or facing each other on the floor, such as in one of the epic battle scenes which involved complex choreography for their age. The play is a light-hearted version of events which spans from Emperor Claudius’ invasion of Celtic Britain to Boudicca’s revolt. Our curriculum-inspired play has been written as a direct result of discussions in History lessons which also served to consolidate the children's learning.
This ensemble production is inspired by Brechtian theatre techniques which allow the cast to self-consciously retell a story and to continue to remind the audience that they are watching a performance and not become lost in the world of escapism. This is one of the reasons why the cast play many different roles throughout the production. Sometimes the same actor might be a Roman in one scene, a Celt in another and, in addition to this, they might even be a Roman Emperor. To distinguish between these characters the children wore different costumes or used a prop to symbolise that they changed roles. Costume changes happened within the audience’s view line so that this transformation was made clear.
"What an incredible performance it was. Everyone enjoyed it so much and it was nothing short of amazing. It was brilliantly entertaining!"