Much Ado About Nothing - March 2022
Posted on: 28/03/2022This year, pupils from Years 9, 12 and 13 have rehearsed tirelessly after school, battled Covid illness and have overcome year group boundaries to be part of 21 schools across Kent coming together to bring Shakespeare’s iconic tale of Much Ado About Nothing to life.
Barton Court is part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Associate Schools Programme, a long-term project where schools work with artists and practitioners from The RSC and The Marlowe. We were privileged to work with a professional director for a two -hour workshop, meet The Marlowe technical team and be fitted by the team's costume designers ready for our performance of the best scene in the play (the wedding scene). The cast have been rehearsing weekly after school and have shown real maturity and enthusiasm when tackling the Shakespearian text. All cast members have made their character their own and it has been wonderful watching them get to know each other and start to gel as a cast.
The evening of the performance was both exciting and scary. We had a dress and technical run on the main stage at The Marlowe, before our evening performance. The cast had individual microphones and we were finally able to see the long awaited set design in real life on the main stage. All the schools were introduced to each other, showing a variety of age groups and abilities all joining together to create a wonderful interpretation of Shakespeare’s play. There was an excited buzz back stage just before we went on to perform, with lots of nerves starting to show.
However, the cast of Barton Court performed their best performance. They rose to the occasion with maturity and professionalism. Despite one of our main characters just returning from 10 days covid isolation, the cast seamlessly and effortlessly produced a performance rivalling any professional company.
