Certain places, I
find, hold great
significance for
many people and
for many variable
reasons. It might
be a restaurant,
an unforgettable
flavour;itcouldbe
a view, engraved
into your retinas; and it may be a city and its tale to tell. I
have always adored London, that most enduringly exciting
of metropolises. I exploit every available opportunity to be
there, so naturally I was delighted to have the chance to
once again go on the Drama residential.
It’s planting your feet on that platform when you really
feel the first burst of excitement, which fuels your small
dash to the ticket booth where we congregated to collect
our Tube tickets. We all navigated through the tunnels and
escalators without mishap (amazing), before ascending the
notorious 193-step stairwell that takes you up to Covent
Garden and on to the Travelodge. Harry and I shared a
room with a view of the Shard from our window, which was
awesome –we dawdled around Covent Garden on a radiantly
warm, energetic afternoon. The blue-skied sunshine was
a tremendous welcome from the Capital and it continued
until a salmon-pink sunset draped us at seven-thirty.
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Press Team page
We walked past Westminster and the London Eye en route
to the restaurant, which was once a grand courthouse
(the dungeons are now toilets, and upstairs were two
lavish, chandeliered courtrooms). The three-course meal
was an absolute treat and it was a lovely evening out, all
of us dressed to the nines for the evening performance of
Ballyturk
, starringCillianMurphy (
Scarecrow
from
Batman
Begins
). To call it an odd performance does not even half
do it justice and it was very much a piece of experimental
theatre, lacking much in the way of a coherent plot… Still,
its bizarre nature (e.g. a wall splits onto a field; a man walks
out and talks about cigarettes before playing Jenga with
chocolate Bourbons) certainly did ensure you wouldn’t
forget it. And, as an added bonus, Fynn Roberts, who played
Charlie Bucket in a KEVICC show four Years ago, joined us
for the evening! He was similarly bemused by the show...
The next day was spent
wandering around Camden
Market, eating lots of
excellent Middle Eastern
food, and buying bits and
bobs (I got a beautiful
goat skin satchel), before
watching
Shakespeare In
Love
. This made much more
sense and was superbly
funny; littered with hilarious
Shakespeare references and
featured an ingenious set
design – it was really a hoot
and a half, and a pleasure
to have experienced. We
then had an hour in Leicester Square, where the red-carpet
premiere of
Dracula Untold
took place, before catching the
train home, still buzzing from a Ben & Jerry’s sugar rush
and the excitement of our West End adventures.
Liam Heitman-Rice, 13SDE
It Isn’t Just Shakespeare Who’s In Love
Slavery
This is a word we no longer associate with our modern
society; we think back to the slave trade of the 17th
century. But it's naïve of us to not even consider the
possibility that slavery is still present in our 'equal'
society. As a community, we have developed awareness
for the impact our purchases have on the environment.
However, we still seem to overlook human suffering as
a result of our supermarket shopping. How many of you
know where the food you buy fromyour local supermarket
is sourced? When we see that our food comes from a less
developed country like Thailand, we have an ideal that
the product is supporting their local community and
improving their quality of life. However, when stories such
as the trafficking of people to work as slaves on trawlers
are revealed, we realise that instead of our ideal we might
just be supporting real life modern slavery.
The Thai seafood industry employs around 650,000
people. Many of these are migrant workers from Burma,
Cambodia and Laos as well as other poor neighbouring
countries. These workers are trafficked into Thailand
and the unluckiest, and often most vulnerable, are sold
into slavery to work on Thai fishing boats. These people
will not see land for up to two Years and face a future of
abuse, torture and mass execution. Giant international
supermarkets like Morrison’s, Tesco, Aldi and Walmart
are supporting globalised slavery by selling prawns fed
by slave labour. The government have been made aware
of this and are raising concerns about Thailand’s current
labour rights; however no direct action has taken place.
As a community we need to review the way we take food
for granted. We give little thought to the lengths workers
go to put it onto our table and our naïvety might just
be the death of thousands. Isn’t it time that we stopped
obsessing about the price tag and give more thought to
the people.
Madeleine Moss, Year 11
