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nown for the vividness and diverse plethora of events that it hosts, my school has always placed plays at the top of the stack and its teachers have made sure that participating in every play serves as an unexampled journey that revolutionizes the way students think about drama. Maintaining the standard and aura of classy plays as usual, two very consequential plays were recently presented by Grade 7 and Grade 9: Goodnight Mister Tom and Les Miserables, respectively.

Both these texts, as novels and movies, have been celebrated for rightly passing on the message and mood of their individual eras. The actors that enacted the protagonists and antagonists from our talented young lot did no less than embellish the effect of the ambiance upon the startled audience, which beheld each scene with bated breath. The Grade 7 play premiered at 11 a.m. on March 8, 2014. The teachers chose to enact a play that was part of their International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum as the very same novel is part of their English course. I was the assistant student director and I dearly miss those days when we ardently put our brains together to realize such a success.

And so began the tale of William Beech and Tom Oakley, and I myself was thrilled to go through such a heart-warming story during rehearsals. The novel by British society children'€™s writer Michelle Magorian was originally penned in 1981 and revolves around World War II and the displacement that poor families faced during this period of destruction. Consequently, the character Beech is relocated from his real home in Deptford, London to a village named Little Weirwold.

On one hand, the Grade 7 play was a visual treat for all audience members. The principal himself appreciated the performance and described it as a '€œhuge leap from the minor flaws of the dress rehearsal'€. The Grade 9 play was more of a thriller and involved politics, suspense and a fear factor about what would happen at every next moment. Les Miserables (the literal French translation for The Miserables) is regarded as one of the most intense novels of the 19th century.

It was the archetype by Victor Hugo that accurately described his very own situation when it was written. The tone of the novel and its brilliant enactment by our mature Grade 9 students was somber and had melancholic appeal throughout, even during positive scenes. It was the story of a conflict between Jean Valjean and Javert, in which Valjean serves a 19-year term in prison for the crime of stealing a loaf of bread for his sister'€™s seven starving children.

He is released with a yellow passport just so that people know that he is an ex-con. Javert is a police officer who considers punishment the right avenue for even the slightest of crimes. The story proceeds further with the introduction of many new characters and internal conflicts. On a holistic scale, it tells us a lot more than the superficial inference.

It touches politics, war, love and a couple more such contrasting ideas as well. It portrays that the huge issues that litter the world do not stop at the blue and red lines drawn on maps. Wherever men go in ignorance or despair, wherever women sell themselves for bread, wherever children lack books to learn from or a warm heart, Les Miserables knocks at the door and says: '€œOpen up, I am here for you.'€

Sahil Nandal
Jakartaa