Sixth Form Ensemble to take play to Edinburgh Fringe

Published on isbi School News dated Monday 9th of June 2014

A talented cast of Oundle School's Sixth Form actors have been rehearsing Just by Ali Smith in preparation for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August.

The play, originally commissioned for the National Connections Festival, is a dark comedy, an absurdist take on British national identity and the British concept of justice, featuring corpses impaled with umbrellas, a blind judge, townspeople who speak in synchronised verse, and an amnesiac maloprop cop: Kafka meets Alice in Wonderland.

Robbie Younger (18) plays Albert, and the role of Victoria is played by Livvy Sellers (18). They are admirably supported by Emma Kelmsley-Pein (17), Georgie Anstey (18), Alex Wallitt (16), Monica Dahiya (16) and Annabelle Sherwood (17), with Polly Halstead (17) as stage manager.

Livvy Sellers will be starting a course at Central Drama School later this year.

Performances in Edinburgh will run from 12 to 17 August at 4.50pm in Paradise Green at St. Augustine's on George IV Bridge.

English teacher, Andrew Martens, commented, 'Pupils have worked hard on this production over many weeks and are hoping to do Oundle proud at the Edinburgh Festival. They will be spending a couple of days in Oundle getting the show up to scratch with some intensive rehearsals, before travelling up to Edinburgh for a week of performances. As well as performing their own show, pupils will also immerse themselves in the experience of the world's biggest arts festival.'

Emma Kemsley-Pein commented, 'Just is certainly a challenging play to work on. It is far from run of the mill and as a result we have to really push ourselves and think outside the box in terms of how we are going to portray our characters and our interaction with others onstage. The political nature of the play is thought-provoking and also encourages us to consider the wider effects of imbalances of justice and power. We are, I'm sure I can speak on behalf of the whole cast, really looking forward to what promises to be an unforgettable week in Edinburgh.'