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We were thrilled to welcome back a number of former cast members from previous performances of the Greek Play Oedipus Tyrannus with OBs attending each of the four shows of the 2023 production. Many had stayed on from The Bradfield Society Reunion to watch Oedipus The King on Saturday 24 June, 26 years on from the last performance. Those who were able to return loved stepping into Greeker once again.

Patrick Wilson (G 75-80), who played Oedipus in 1979, was able to join us and commented on the poster of him from the production with what looked like bloodied sugar puffs on his face for his gouged-out eyes! Having played the lead role, Patrick still has deep recollections of his time as Oedipus. “I learnt my 680 lines of Ancient Greek in Crossways, where I was a guest of Headmaster Anthony Quick and his wife Jean, together with my friend in G House, Graeme Lunn. They couldn’t have been more hospitable.”

One of the highlights of that summer was taking the production on tour to Cyprus where it was performed at St Barnabus School for the Blind, Nicosia and in the ancient Theatre of Curium, Limassol. It almost didn’t happen for Patrick who recalls: “My Housemaster, Chris Saunders, feared I had taken on too much, and that it would affect me hitherto. How right he was. Luckily, by the time I went to perform on tour in August at Curium Theatre, the doctors and my mother had nursed me back to health.”

Oedipus on tour in Cyprus, Summer 1979
Patrick Wilson as Oedipus, 1979

Charles Flindt (B 75-80), who played the Messenger from Corinth in the 1979 production, has a mountain of memories too, far beyond the first five or ten lines, which he can still recite. “I remember Charlie Lepper shouting: “Can’t hear you, Corinthian Messenger!” during the endless rehearsals. I also remember the rain sending a performance from Greeker to the Gym, which I think was a first, despite Lepper’s lucky tie!”

The performances in Cyprus were also memorable for Charles. “During the performance in Curium, having dropped my bombshell news to Oedipus and done my bit, I ran to the top of the theatre to watch a blood- spattered Paddy Wilson emerge, eyes stabbed out, lamenting the inescapable cruelty of the gods. Behind him, the Mediterranean sun set over Episkopi Bay. Even I, as a Science student, knew that it doesn’t get much better than that.”

Nigel Campbell (B 75-79), Tiresias in 1979, also remembered Lepper’s directorial note prior to the public dress rehearsal: “Remember the four Ps gentlemen: Pitch, Pace, Pause and Power. We need variety in all of those.” Wise words that he has passed on when running seminars on public speaking.

I learnt my 680 lines of Ancient Greek in Crossways, where I was a guest of Headmaster Anthony Quick and his wife Jean. They couldn’t have been more hospitable.

Patrick Wilson (G 75-80), Oedipus (1979)

Read more about the 1979 production

From the 1997 cast George Masters (E 94-99), Tom Dingle (C 83-98), Claire Pilkington (I 95-97), Isabella Calthorpe (K 96-98), Hannah Knapp (I 96-98) and Nick Collett (H 93-98) all watched the opening night performance.

Hannah Knapp described it as “so special to see some of the old faces” again as the group stayed in Greeker long after the final curtain in the pitch-dark reminiscing about their experiences and conversing with the current pupils. “It feels like it all happened last year not 26 years ago!” she added.

Having arrived at Bradfield in the Lower Sixth, Hannah remembers finding herself swept up in Greek Play fever. She was thrilled to be cast as a member of the Chorus, rehearsing every evening after Prep in the Greek Theatre.

“I loved every second of it. There was no place else I’d rather have been and it changed my life. My love and inspiration for my career in the Arts stems back to that 17-year-old girl giving it all her heart in Greeker in the pouring rain but not feeling a single drop.”

Taking part in Bradfield’s historic Greek Play shaped Hannah’s life as she chose to pursue a career in the Arts, training as an actress in Classical Acting at Central School of Speech of Drama after graduating from St. Andrews University. She has worked on many more theatre productions and is currently in TV drama development.

 

We poured our hearts and souls into the play and the feeling of community that we built was extraordinary.

Isabella Calthorpe (K 96-98) – Chorus LEADER

 

Having read the pre-show article in the previous edition of The Bradfieldian, 1997 Chorus leader Isabella Calthorpe remembered her experience as one of the most rewarding years of her life. “We poured our hearts and souls into the play and the feeling of community that we built was extraordinary as was the shared purpose.”

Inspired by her experience she went on to study Classical Studies at Edinburgh and then on to train at LAMDA to become an actress. “In my acting career I performed in West End shows and at The National Theatre but my experience in the Greek Theatre was of a professional production standard and stands out to me as one of the most fulfilling experiences.”

Claire Pilkington, who played Jocasta in the 1997 production, shared her fond memories of the long summer evenings rehearsing in Greeker as well taking the show on tour to Greece in the Summer. “The tour was a fantastic experience. We would parade around the streets in our costumes handing out fliers for the play. It took us a year to learn the Ancient Greek script and put it together, so the cast and crew became like a second family.”

While unable to make the Saturday reunion, Tristan Daws (E 95-00), former member of College staff and Oedipus Director Hailz-Emily Osborne and Matt Barber (E 96-01) enjoyed the evening performances the following week.

The boys and girls of the Chorus who are the real heroes of the Greek Play

Hailz-Emily Osborne (SCR 85-98) - Director of Oedipus Tyrannus (1997)

For Hailz, director of the 1997 production, the heart of Greek drama has always been the Chorus. She stated in her programme notes that the cast were committed to the idea of an Ancient Greek Chorus, one that must dance and sing as well as act. She went on to note: “It is, of course, the boys and girls of the Chorus who are the real heroes of the Greek Play”, and it is those pupils who she remembers fondly to this day. “What I chiefly remember is working with amazing young women and men. The first all-girl chorus was The Bacchae (1991) followed by another for Troades (Trojan Women, 1994). Oedipus (1997) was the first with music written for a chorus of mixed male and female voices.”

“It’s wonderful timing to return to Bradfield to see the play that first introduced me to Greek Theatre!”, said Tristan Daws who played the role of Ismene. He is now a secondary school teacher himself and next year is directing Antigone as the senior play at Wimbledon High School.

In the 1997 Bradfield College Chronicle review Helen Holtom(I 96-98) received rave reviews for meeting the challenges of the second longest speech of the play. “A mature and powerfully nuanced performance that won her praise in the national press. The reviewer went on to say: “For many, Holtom’s performance was the most dazzling and most gripping in the production.”

Sending in her memories as she was unable to attend Helen said: “I remember well taking part as the nurse to Jocasta in Hailz- Emily Osborne’s production in 1997. Lots of fun and fantastic to be transported back to all the drama of Greek tragedy.”

“I remember Oedipus as if it were yesterday!” says Matt Barber (E 96-01) who, after leaving Bradfield, starred as an actor in Downton Abbey and the Dracula TV series. Matt played Antigone and one of Tiresias’ crows in Osborne’s production. “You’ve got to start somewhere!” he says of his role as a crow. “I was in the Fourth Form when I auditioned and was quite short when the academic year began. By the time the play went on stage I was taller than James who was playing Oedipus and I was supposed to be a little princess. It was a bit ridiculous.”

 

Being in Oedipus was one of the first catalysts to me becoming a professional actor.

Matt Barber (E 96-01), Antigone (Oedipus 1997)

 

In a previous interview with The Bradfieldian, Matt said the experience of being in a Greek Play stays with Bradfieldians long after they have left the College. “As one of the first experiences of acting on stage there is a kind of magic about it. For me there is a rugged, simple charm about the Greek Theatre that doesn’t exist anywhere else.”

Matt would go on to play the lead in Hippolytus three years later and being in the Greek Play will always be one of his fondest memories. “I came to Bradfield because of the Greek Play. I wanted nothing more than to be in it and even running on at the end of the show was such a big deal to me; especially because it meant I got to hang out with a load of older pupils which I thought was just the coolest thing (although I’m pretty sure they found me really annoying). Being in Oedipus was one of the first catalysts to me becoming a professional actor. It is fair to say that I wouldn’t be doing what I do today if it weren’t for Greeker.”

READ MORE ABOUT THE 1997 PRODUCTION

From the October 2023 issue of
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