Anticipation ran high for this show long before it started. Since the last live drama performance of Sister Act in November 2019, Queen’s Hall had been devoid of the presence of a live audience. Until now!

Shrek the musical. We saw posters everywhere, brief dance steps peeked from the door, and heard snippets of songs as we passed Queen’s Hall… At last, the big day arrived! We simply couldn’t wait any longer to see the full performance ourselves.

The first thing that jumped out to us was the stage. Ambitiously designed with a revolving stage to present Shrek’s house, the swamp, the forest, complete with Lord Farquad’s private chambers – even with a whole ‘tower’ extending to the side! Every part was exquisitely detailed; a genuine feast for the eye.

The play started as green lights flashed and the band played exciting, jaunty music. ‘Big Bright Beautiful World’ — quite an appropriate summary of the story. We braced ourselves to be swept away into Shrek’s world.

The role of Shrek which was shared between Oscar Wade and Jack Tregunna was so excellently portrayed , they both played the green ogre with great skill. Fiona was played by Gracie Wickens Sweet and Elizabeth Mok whose voices gave us goosebumps and left the crowd in stunned silence after the opening ‘I know it’s today” which saw two younger versions of Fiona shine. Donkey had our bellies aching from laughter, the role was portrayed by a southern sounding Lucia Edwards and Faith Davies. Millie Gubby as Lord Farquad had the crowd chuckling and engaged with an excellent show of the rather *short* king. The dragon captivated the audience with upbeat numbers and ferocious presence, Elsie Marsh- Bourdon took on this role with finesse. The storybook characters, Two little Pigs, Pinocchio and the wicked witch to name a few helped hold the show together and were cohesive and comedic.

As the play drew into a close, we were all left breathless clapping and cheering and whooping for this wonderful show. Personally, there was only one thing I didn’t like: my hands hurt from clapping so much, and I couldn’t stop! As we left Queen’s Hall, again filled with music and drama and laughter after a long, long year, big smiles and happy tears surrounded us all around. Thank you so much to everyone involved, from our new artistic director Ian Trafford and his assistant director Eleanor Ridley, actors and actresses, to the costume, technical, music and scenic departments. Special mentions go to Charlotte Edwards, Daniel Jones, Edward Jenkins and Cicely Wills– thank you for bringing Shrek to life, right in our school!

By Smiley, Munopa and Natasha –  Year 12.

More photos of Shrek the musical can be found on our Flickr account!