News

February 2012

Drama on the Tube

Students from Uxbridge High School took part in an alternative performance piece last week on a Piccadilly line train full of unsuspecting commuters.

The students spent over a month preparing for the performance which was based on the statue outside Uxbridge Tube Station named – ‘Anticipation’.  This statue was designed by Anita Lafford and unveiled by HM Queen Elizabeth ll in celebration of her Golden Jubilee visit on 25 June 2002.  The students took the stimulus of the statue; a mother, her child and a dog anticipating an arrival, to create pieces based around the concept of not waiting for things in life to come to you, but instead taking advantage of opportunities when they present themselves.

Miss Walmsley (Head of Drama and Performing Arts)  “We really wanted to give the students a challenge. They had to prepare for a number of different possible scenarios from the lights going out to unexpected reactions from the other passengers.  I’m sure anyone can appreciate how much courage it takes for a group of students to get up in front of complete strangers and perform.  We are very proud of them.”   Many of the audience members stopped reading their papers or took out their headphones to watch the performances and one commuter even asked if they could watch the performance again on the return journey to Uxbridge.

Jack Beran, one of the students who performed as part of the project commented “It was really exciting performing to an audience whose reactions we just couldn’t predict. I was really pleased that so many of the members of the public were so engaged with what we were doing.  I think we brightened up a few commuters’ journeys home from work!”. 

The students’ next performance will be in the school’s production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ on Thursday 22, Friday 23 and Saturday 24 March.  This is a contemporary production set against the backdrop of the London riots.