Leap into Laughter with ‘The Frogs’ in the Performing Arts Centre

With less than a week to go until ‘The Frogs’ is performed by our Senior Drama Scholars in the Performing Arts Centre; the cast and crew have been working extremely hard to prepare.

‘The Frogs’ tells the story of the god ‘Dionysus’, who, despairing of the state of Athens’ tragedians, travels to Hades (the underworld) to bring the playwright Euripides back from the dead. He brings along his slave Xanthias, who is smarter and braver than Dionysus. As the play opens, Xanthias and Dionysus argue over what kind of jokes Xanthias can use to open the play. For the first half of the play, Dionysus routinely makes critical errors, forcing Xanthias to improvise to protect his master and prevent Dionysus from looking incompetent—but this only allows Dionysus to continue to make mistakes with no consequence.

Director of Drama, Mrs Jilly Witcomb comments: “Working on this production with our Senior Scholars has been a fantastic experience and we have laughed our way through rehearsals, coming up with different ways to stage this Ancient Greek Comedy. A number of our Senior Scholars are leaving this year and, although it is sad to see them go, it has been an absolute privilege watching them grow over the last 7 years and support their passion for the Arts”.

Kieran Lilley, who plays ‘Dionysus’ said: “I am absolutely thrilled to be playing such a wonderful role. I have never performed in a comedy at RGS, and I believe this is a first for the Scholars as well. Even though the play outdates Christ by over 400 years, it stands the test of time and the team of Scholars, and brilliant staff in the Drama department, have developed this play into side splitting entertainment!”

Maya Walford, who plays ‘Xanthias’ said: “I am extremely excited to be playing the role of ‘Xanthias’ in this wild production. Being a Drama Scholar from Year Seven, I have found myself performing in some amazing pieces. However, this was by far the most insane! The entire rehearsal process was so much fun, and working with this incredible cast has been brilliant”.

Charlie Lord, who plays ‘Charon’ said: “As a Drama Captain and A level Drama Student, ‘The Frogs’ has been a wonderful way to finish my time here at RGS before I go on to film school to study screen acting. It has been yet another incredible rehearsal process getting to work on this bizarre play alongside such a comedic and creative cast. I am so grateful for the Drama Department here at RGS with it being such an amazing community and for all the memories that I have made along the way”.

‘The Frogs’ will be performed in the RGS Performing Arts Centre for two nights, on Thursday 14 March and Friday 15 March. Tickets are now on sale and to purchase your ticket, please do so online at https://www.trybooking.com/uk/DDGE.