Emilia

A cast of Year 10 and 12 students performed Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s ‘Emilia’ this term. This powerful play was originally commissioned by The Globe to explore and re-imagine the life of Emilia Bassano. In 1611 Bassano published a volume of feminist, radical and subversive poetry. It was one of the first published collections of poetry written by a woman in England. The little we know of her is restricted to the possibility that she may have been the ‘dark lady’ of Shakespeare’s sonnets – and the rest of her story is erased by history.

Emilia tells us that ‘we are only as powerful as the stories we tell’ and I wanted our students to explore a piece of theatre that challenges and inspires its audience to question the lived experience of women, worldwide. With confidence, creativity and humour the cast did an outstanding job of transporting us to Sixteenth Century London. The ensemble piece was a striking mix of physical theatre work and raw, truthful dialogue. The audience were visibly moved and the cast did a fantastic job of reminding us of the importance of theatre as a mouthpiece for the misrepresented, unheard and unseen. I was so proud of the cast who did this mighty piece of writing justice, with a performance to match. May their fire continue to burn bright; I look forward to the next GHS production!

Mrs Fiona Jones, Director 

I greatly enjoyed the experience of being involved in Emilia. It was a great way to get to know and interact with new people in my year as well as other year-groups, especially as I am new to the school. There was a strong sense of community amongst the cast, and I feel that the play was an incredible opportunity to bring awareness to the issues of gender inequality throughout history. It was especially powerful to do this as part of an all-female cast, as we were all passionate about the message we wanted to convey.

Polly M, Year 12