Too Much Punch for Judy by Mark Wheeller

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Theatre Company came to our school to perform their production of

Too Much Punch for Judy by Mark Wheeller to all of year 10.

Evaluative Phase

'Too Much Punch for Judy'

On 20th September 2003, 'Ape Theatre Company' came to our school to

perform their production of 'Too Much Punch for Judy' by Mark Wheeller

to all of year 10. 'Ape' are a Theatre in Education (TiE) Company and

therefore are responsible for touring schools with performances that

are aimed at informing or warning students and young people of dangers

that may face them in life. We were told that this is a documentary

drama, which means that real life events were used as the stimulus and

in this case, the monologues were actual accounts from the people

involved in the event.

As a touring company, 'Ape' must be aware that they will be performing

in many different spaces, therefore it is important that the set is

minimalistic and can be set up and adapted to small and large halls.

This particular production is to warn students of the effects of drink

driving and particularly to be aware of accepting lifts in cars with

people who have been drinking. We are not old enough to drive, but we

may have older friends who are, or even family members who have a "few

too many", then drive.

This performance was in our school hall and although we have a

proscenium arch stage, they performed on the floor, and in fact some

audience members were seated up on the stage with I though was unique

idea, as they had to look down on the play. They used a thrust staging

idea with the audience on 3 sides of the performance space and had

projection screen set up on one of the walls. I though that the space

was used effectively considering that there was more than 200 of us

watching and we are used to sitting all facing in one direction for

plays and assemblies - this was good because we almost surrounded the

performance space and I felt closer to the action.

The actors were waiting in each corner of the aisles that had been set

up and sat on chairs as we entered the performance space. Loud house

music played as we came in and everyone was chatty and in quite good

spirits. We didn't know what to expect, but some people thought it

would be a boring play because they don't take drama, but I was very

excited to see what it would be about. Miss Frith had told us that she

saw this play when she was at school and that she still remembered

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