Royal College Colombo brings Shakespearean times to life

By Sajith Amendra

The Royal College Drama Society traditionally enters the longest-running Inter-School Shakespeare Drama Competition organised by the YMCA Colombo along with the Interact Club of Colombo North. Over the past dozen years, the Royal College Drama Society, while winning the championship for two years, was runner-up on six occasions.

This year, for the 40th edition of the competition, the Royal College Shakespeare 2012 cast led by Rashmin de Silva chose to perform an extract from ‘Romeo and Juliet’. A mixed bunch of Royalists with a passion for drama met in late August for auditions with Director Thushara Hettihamu.  

A month of intensive rehearsals followed, to pull off a performance that satisfied a critical Royal Drama alumnus cum Director, who said: “It’s easy to come out with a piece that is technically perfect, but it’s very hard to tap into the soul of the play. Our production is very personal. We’ve built upon relationships and interaction plus the strength of the bond between the characters (to create this soul).”

The semi finals for the 17 boys schools were held on 18 and 19 September and the Royal College crew booked a berth in the finals with very strong reviews about their outstanding performance.

The finals of All Island Inter Schools Shakespeare Drama Competition 2012 were held on the 06October to a packed audienceat the Bishop’s College Auditorium. Royal College emerged First Runner Up, with the Shakespeare Challenge Trophy being awarded to D. S. Senanayake for an innovative interpretation of an extract from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Deshith Gamage of Royal College was Best Supporting Actor for his role as Mercutio.  

Royal College had also entered the inaugural Annual Inter-School Drama Competition organised by the Council for Business with Britain (CBB) in collaboration with the British Council. The evening of the Finals on 21October2012, saw Royal College putting up a stunning performance of an extract from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ as they brought to stage some lively and realistic scenes from Shakespeare times.

The excellent characterisation and liveliness together with the brilliant directing managed to relive 19th century Verona on stage in its true form. The performance of the extract was highly commended by all three judges at the event.  

“I saw, and you saw, what we call theatre. You have done a great service to Shakespeare,” said Valerie Hartman, Judge – Trinity College London.

Royal College won the Championship Trophy at this inaugural CBB Inter-School Drama Competition 2012. The excellence in the direction was also recognised with Director Thushara Hettihamu being awarded the prize for Best Director. The Runner-Up schools were British School of Colombo, St. Bridget’s Convent, and Holy Family Convent.

On 26 October, the Royal College Shakespeare Drama Cast 2012 gave another performance of an extract from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at the Theatre Fest 2012, an inter-school Shakespeare Drama Competition organised in association with Trinity College London.

Trinity College London uses the competition performances to conduct the examinations of the Grade 8 Drama and Speech Syllabus and therefore the competition benefits from experienced examiners to judge the best interpretations made by each school on the greatest plays written by William Shakespeare.  

The standard of Royal College drama was clearly recognised by the examining Trinity College London Judge, who went on to say: “I think we nearly got perfection,” as their performance emerged victorious over Colombo International School, Gateway College Kandy and Alethea International School, the other schools in the final round.  

The remarkable direction of the play by Thushara Hettihamu saw him being awarded Best Director at this competition as well. The vast talent of the actors was also evident as Mario Wijayawardhana as the Nurse was given the award for the Best Characterisation and Deshith Gamage as Mercutio was awarded Best Supporting Male Portrayal.  

With two championship shields and a first runner-up trophy, a memorable theatre season for Royal College truly brought to life Shakespeare’s notion that “All the world’s a stage!”