The week before half term saw the arrival of The Government Inspector to Notley High School. The production played to over 100 people each night to much praise from the audience who thoroughly enjoyed the extraordinary story of a corrupt town that mistakenly identifies a mischievous traveller as an important inspector from the Government.

The play has been in rehearsal since the October half term and the cast have been committed to weekly and weekend rehearsals. Their commitment and effort during this time should be highly commended. The challenge of the production this year has been the comic and pantomime style of the play. Students really needed to get to grip with the over exaggerated characters, the very wordy script and the comic timing to ensure the story was told in an effective way. This year we also chose to stage the play on three separate platforms with audience sitting facing each other lengthways across the Drama Studio. This was an excellent way to add variety and get the audience really involved in the action.

All the students performed to a very high standard and in many of the chorus sequences control and precision of movement really added the element of professionalism to the play. There were many outstanding performances from the principle characters which enabled the play to be extraordinarily special.

As well as the cast, the technical elements of the play equally contributed to the success and overall professional communication of the play. The set design was created by Sarah Lyne who used the idea of Big Brother combined with projections and computer screens to highlight the idea of being watched and checked up on by those in charge. I must thank Sarah, Teresa Wall and Jonathan Burge for all their work on the set.

The play would not be a success if it was not lit and I thank Dave Lee Allan for his creative approach to the lighting design as I appreciate lighting three stages instead of just one is not easy. I would also like to thank the lighting crew William Snook, Thomas Dawtrey, Alex Abbott and Harry Williams.

This year’s play was a particularly enjoyable experience because of the nature of the students at Notley High who always want to seek to produce performances of a very high standard. The play this year was definitely that and my final thanks goes to the all the students, parents and staff who continue to support the success of the Drama Department as it continues to thrive.