AS Drama: revenge, entrapment, sacrifice and suffering

Emiko Yukawa

For the first part of the AS Drama and Theatre Arts Unit 2 Performance Exam, the Year 12 Drama Students had to perform in either a monologue or duologue. There were performances from The Seagull (Chekhov), Medea (a version by Italian activist writer Franca Rame), Tartuffe (Molière) and Miss Julie (Strindberg).

Ed Hornsby

In these scenes, the audience was invited to look behind the closed doors of four family homes, to listen in on the domestic discussions that are unfolding there. A young man who had grown up in the shadow of his mother’s fame confided in his uncle and tried to find his own voice, a woman betrayed by her husband prepared to exact unspeakable revenge, a young woman colluded with her maidservant to avoid marriage to a religious zealot; and two lovers, a mistress and servant found themselves tortured and entrapped by society’s expectations.

Georgie Olesen

The second part of the exam involved a performance of a cut version of The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht. Originally based on an ancient Chinese myth (echoed in the Judgement of Solomon) this is a parable advocating the importance of goodness in a corrupt and weak world.

The story follows the tribulations of Grusha Vachnadze, (a poor servant girl) who sacrifices her own dreams and wishes to safeguard the life of an innocent baby.


Along her journey she meets some amusing and larger than life characters: parodies, Buffons, hypocrites. Set against a backdrop of war, the play exposes the weakness of individuals, greed, faithlessness, the cruelty of dictatorship and the suffering of the poor.

Gabi Kol

Watch a slideshow of photos of the performances.

Words by Fran Godsal and Fizza Hussain - Directors