The Leys School, Cambridge, was privileged to have distinguished Shakespearean actor Michael Pennington as the first professional actor to “tread the boards” of its new £9.5 million Performing Arts Centre, Great Hall.
He performed his acclaimed one-man show about William Shakespeare, Sweet William, at the opening of the Great Hall Festival, a celebration of performing and academic excellence. Next day Mr Pennington took part in a Q & A session with sixth-form English and Theatre Studies pupils. When he told them his favourite film adaptation of Shakespeare was Ralph Fiennes’s recent big-screen adaptation of Coriolanus, he was told that pupil Harry Fenn had played Coriolanus’s young son Martius in the film.
“Fantastic!” Mr Pennington exclaimed. “It was the best Shakespeare film I’ve ever seen, with its sense of violence and civil war, using a conversational style of language while not losing the power. It was a brilliant concept which worked in every way.”
Harry was thrilled to meet the famous actor: “As a young, aspiring actor, meeting someone with such a passion for acting was incredible. To be acting for as long as he has been and still have a noticeable pleasure when performing is remarkable. It was certainly inspiring to meet such a distinguished actor and to watch him perform was a privilege.”
Drama is thriving at The Leys, which has four pupils with places in the National Youth Theatre.