'Dear England' Inspires Students

On Thursday 5^th February, Year 9 and 10 Drama students from Hewett Academy were lucky enough to be invited to watch the National Theatre’s touring production of ‘Dear England’. The Olivier award winning play tells the story of Gareth Southgate’s tenure as England manager, focusing not on the details of the sport but on the psychology of what it meant to the players to be ‘England’ and of course what it is that has prevented the men’s team from replicating the success of 1966 for so very many years.

The play was fast paced, utilising ensemble movement and physical theatre from the very start. “The physical theatre was good to show the expressions of all the players” said Jess, Year 10.  The Hewett party sat in rapt awe as we watched the opening scene; Southgate’s infamous missed penalty of 1996. Amazingly, the staff learned afterwards that this lingering moment in history, the pivotal event which ‘Dear England’ hinges upon, was all but unknown to the students previously. Southgate’s paranoia which held so tightly to him, leading him to believe that nobody would trust him as they wouldn’t let go of this one missed goal, was in fact unfamiliar to the youth. During the interval the group chatted about the incredible stage craft we had witnessed, we analysed how moments had been created and discussed the effectiveness of the raked stage, allowing all the action to be seen by the audience, but goodness wouldn’t that be hard on the actors’ legs! As the performance drew to a close, it was easy to forget that we had been watching the play for nearly three hours, it was simply magnificent stagecraft. The Hewett Academy students were complimented by members of the public sitting nearby, for their excellent theatre etiquette and inquisitive minds.

The following week, Toby and Amari from the National Theatre, joined the students and led them in a workshop titled ‘The Morning After’. During the practical workshop, Toby and Amari guided the students through creating their own ensemble style scenes in the changing room following an altercation. The students demonstrated their excellent Drama ability and willingness to try something different, giving Toby and Amari their full attention and absorbing everything they had to offer them. The second part of the workshop looked at letter writing and story telling, encouraging the students to write their own ‘Dear England’ letters. In small groups they discussed what it meant to be ‘from here’, what England meant to them. The diversity in responses was beautiful, and reminded us all that for many England offers “safety”, “opportunity” and “family”. At the close of the workshop, Amari recorded the voices of some students delivering their ‘Dear England’ letters, these will be edited along with others from schools around the country and will be published on the National Theatre’s website. “The workshop was fantastic, I loved being creative and working on my communication skills” said Nora, Year 10.

“This is our fourth theatre trip to Norwich Theatre this year, the students are all so inspired by watching live, professional theatre and it is evident in their constantly advancing Drama work.” said Mrs Hart.