Hobson's Choice

This week saw the culmination of months of hard work. The English department staged a production of Harold Brighouse’s play, Hobson’s Choice.  

Originally set in Salford, UK in the 1880s, Mr Douglas Allan’s wonderful stage set and costumes, brought it up to the 1970s. We were exposed to a painting of the Green Lady, the Mona Lisa of kitsch, an array of beige tank tops, wildly patterned shirts and an iconic soundtrack.

Loosely based on the stories of Cinderella and King Lear, a dissolute shoe shop owner, Hobson, so ably played by Year 11 Nondas Tosounis, is cleverly undone by the machinations of his eldest daughter Maggie.  Emma Farkas played the sassy Maggie, who spotting the potential in their cobbler Willy, decides that she will marry him and set up a rival business to her father’s. Emma’s performance caught very well the assertive brittleness of the character but also hinted at a softer side, which made the relationship with Willy more than a filial revenge. Willy, played by Manuel Elikishvili, was a bag of nervous twitches and humility, and Manuel caught this very well through voice and body language and at the end effectively conveyed his increasing assuredness with a more confident and upright posture . Nondas Tosounis gave a marvelously responsive performance whenever onstage, particularly effectively when he was not speaking.

Space precludes mentioning all the other cast members but collectively they helped to make the evening the enormously enjoyable experience that it was and I am sure that the team of directors are even now planning their next event to showcase the school’s talent.

Simon Bird

English Teacher