Medea, a Greek play where revenge and hatred leaves behind a trail of blood and violence, has been chosen as the first Classics Production of Woodford County High School throughout its 93 year history. 


The school has several productions throughout the year, first with House Drama, then Spring Production and finally Summer Production, which has been a tradition since 1932. This year however, an additional performance has been thrown into the mix – a Classics play! The play will be performed on Friday 9th November in the school’s Greek Theatre, with tickets sold at a price of £2 each, and all proceeds going to the charity “Proshanti”.


   This production is being organised by two Year 13 Classics students; Mehj Ahmed, and Hannah Khan. “We’ve always loved classics”, said Mehj, who wants more students in the school to be inspired by the subject too. Since the start of the production, there has certainly been an increase in the number of students who are becoming interested in Classics, either simply through the play being discussed, or from the auditions, where students from a variety of year groups came and read the script.  Mehj and Hannah hope this interest will lead to the Classics play being another of the many WCHS (Woodford County High School) traditions, saying “the entire point of us starting off a Classical Drama Society is so that it can be passed down, so the entire school becomes more and more knowledgeable about Classics”. 

 

However, organising a play with just two people has proved to be challenging, as the school is also busy preparing for House Drama and the Prize Giving ceremony (where the year 12s collect their GCSE certificates). With students being bombarded with plans and rehearsals for the different events, there is a lot of pressure being put on the organisers to keep everyone attending regularly, despite their own personal workload. “It has proved to be stressful at times, for example trying to get everyone together for rehearsal and having to check the weather, and postpone the play because of the rain... Nevertheless, it’s been a very enjoyable experience”.


In the last few days, everyone involved has been rehearsing near constantly, and going over their lines... Now it’s just a matter of counting down the hours until the first Classics Play in WCHS history!