Year 12 Original Drama – Matter of Chance & Pan’s Labyrinth

Bringing the Edward Alleyn Theatre into the summer season with a sprinkle of magical realism, our Year 12 put down their marker with their visually stunning and thrilling performance work. Breathing new life into well-known fables, the Matter of Chance company heralded their arrival with the sound of train whistles as they carolled us from the foyer into the theatre checking our tickets for the Berlin Paris express. Bedecked in colourful tunics they echoed the glamour of the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, immediately suggesting intrigue and adventure. Nabokov’s A Matter of Chance hones in on Nabokov’s fascination with the interplay between fantasy and reality intertwined with an inner landscape of despair and the quartet of Luca Dormer, Orson Matthews, Josh Morgan and James Pinon Williams created a slick, action-packed evocation of the shifting worlds as the train hurtled through the snowy landscape in Aleksey’s desperate bid to scape his inner demons. This was a quartet working in totally synergy as they multi-roled through passengers and porters, memory and dreams, and the real and the fantastical and to create a heart-in the mouth thrilling piece.

The Pax company charmed us from the downbeat with their conscious theatricality – inviting us into their world as they conjured the Chorus of the Forest to reflect the shifting moods. The fable is a heart wrenching tale about the relationship between a boy and his fox. Featuring a  non-linear narrative with flashbacks, the quartet of Zachy Fleming, Seven McQueen, Tristan Sevanot Davis and Zac Shaw, enthralled and moved us with some visually beautiful set pieces and utterly enchanting puppetry to suggest vulnerability and hope.