Over the last four weeks, the English Department’s Opening Doors initiative has taken two theatre trips out… ‘Life of Pi’ at Chichester and ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ in London.  

Each trip was preceded by a seminar, in which the students engaged with the themes and theatricality of the play. For ‘Life of Pi’, 40 students from Years 7-11 were challenged to make puppets to represent animals, using any ‘found’ object in their classroom. This resulted in some amazing creations, including some sleeve fish, tissue turtles and a penguin with a fully functioning beak made with a clothes peg and the pages of the book.

Here's what some of our students had to say:

‘I thought the play was amazing: the puppetry and use of projections made it come to life. The actors made it feel real, and you get a new understanding of the work needed to make something like this work. The story itself was amazing and sad and the trip has reminded me why I like doing English and Drama.’  - Noah

‘I loved it all, and I think the puppets were the best bit as they seemed so life-like. Even though I knew someone was inside and controlling it, my brain was fixed on the puppet’s face, which shows the directors had a lot of time to think about it all.’ - Lili

‘The sound alongside different lighting techniques (like lightning) was another thing that really helped us to believe that the production was really happening before our eyes and helped to bring many aspects, especially the storm, to life. I also think that the use of props such as collections of tyres and fishing nets also helped to bring the storm to life and convince the audience that Pi was really at sea.’ - Ellie

Then on the 6th December after their seminar, 40 students went to London to see both parts of ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’. Their responses included:  

‘The trip to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was absolutely astonishing! having an actual pool of water to represent a lake was super cool!’ - Alexis  

‘I think Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has got to be my favourite theatre trip I will ever go on or have ever been on. I loved watching the play and definitely would go again. My favourite part was when Harry, Hermione and Ron got sucked into the telephone box because it looked like they disappeared.’ - Evie

‘The play scared me and surprised me. The actors really made the script that I read more exciting and more adventurous. I loved the actor's outfits in each of the scenes and they really fitted in with the places they are and their personalities. I really enjoyed when the dementors went to each row and was near me it was scary but fun at the same time. I really enjoyed the trip and definitely want to come and watch it again.’ - Daisy