Dramatic Endeavours

Recently, I saw one of my favourite comedians live. He asked if there were any students in the audience to which there was a reply of yes. He then asked if there were any drama students. Some people gave a little cheer to which he replied with a derogatory remark. This he followed by saying he’d apologise but what would a drama student to him? ‘Oh look at me, I’m an angry tree’. While this joke is funny and makes me laugh, it does bother me slightly. At first, I thought it was because, actually, it wasn’t true to life. I have never ‘been’ an ‘angry tree’. But the more I’ve started to think about it, the reason it bothers me is because it is so accurate. I might have never tried out an ‘angry tree’ but I have done some pretty ridiculous things. What course other than drama requires to you to rehearse outside for two hours in freezing February temperatures, make up (and, regrettably, perform) a dance to Aqua’s Barbie Girl , buy a plastic sword from your local toy shop and generally make

In the past six weeks, I've seen three interesting productions for my drama courses. Here are my thoughts on them. Decade , Director -Rupert Goold, Headlong, St Katherine’s Dock I went to see this for my Theatre, Performance and Ethics course at Uni. My tutor told us it was going to be three hours long and, despite myself, I inwardly groaned. I love a good show as much as the next person but, for some unknown reason, when I go to see a play knowing it’s going to be a long one, I expect to get bored for the majority of it. Maybe this is because, I must admit, I do have a poor attention span at times. However, despite my expectations, I was enthralled for pretty much its entirety. Made up of about twenty short plays written for the production, Decade looks at the ten years that followed the attack on The Twin Towers on September 11 th 2001 from the rise in islamaphobia to conspiracy theories to the guilt and grief of those that were left behind. These short plays were split up a

   Being a big fan of both comedy and period dramas/anything, literally anything, set pre-70s, I was quite excited to see that one of Channel 4's new comedy shows was set during the First World War. Despite there being no other current comedies of this nature (that I know of), it's not that unheard of for comedies to be set in the past, Dad's Army  being a great example, and I expected big things. I was also interested to watch it as new writing (writers Simon Bird, Joe Thomas and Jonny Sweet all star in it also).   Chickens , unlike Dad's Army , matches the issues of the WWI setting with modern delivery through characters that seem a mixture of Edwardian characterisation and modern-day personas. Described on Channel 4's website as 'the only men in the village, and all the women hate them. Our nation's heroes are fighting the good fight on foreign soil, but in one sleepy English village three young men remain.', the best way to describe the three main ch