Who goes to the cinemas to watch a play? Well, that’s exactly what our Year 12 Drama and Year 11 Literature classes did, turning a typical school day into an Oscar Wilde experience at Luna Palace.
Who goes to the cinemas to watch a play? Well, in the last week of Term 1, that’s just what the Year 12 Drama class and the Year 11 Literature class did. We piled in a bus to the Luna Palace in Leederville to watch a filmed contemporary performance of Oscar Wilde’s legendary play, The Importance of Being Earnest. For context, the Year 11s are studying it, and the Year 12s were considering performing it.
It was a fun way to spend a day in the last week of what was, for many, a challenging term. A bit of freedom, a bit of change, a bit of hanging out and eating frozen yoghurt. Oh, and watching a classic piece of theatre too. As always, our students represented the school well, always being courteous, responsible, and full of life.
The play itself was a mixed bag, and our reactions varied from rollicking enjoyment to something like shock. While largely faithful to Wilde’s 1899 script, this 2024 adaptation by the National Theatre (England) leaned quite hard into Wilde’s much publicised queerness for inspiration, which was evident from the opening dance sequence featuring main character, Algernon, playing a grand piano in an elaborate pink dress (not in the original script, in case you were wondering).
The range of responses from our students was, at least, a very productive starting point for discussions about adaptation, contexts. ideologies, and all those fun things we like to talk about in our respective subjects. Mrs Stewart and I enjoyed the opportunity to address contemporary culture and Christian response on the bus on the way home. It reminded me that our kids are intelligent, thoughtful, and desire to glorify God in all that they do.
