KRYPT Senior Company July 2024
The main character in this play is a piece of furniture: a humble wardrobe, gifted to a Tudor queen's sister. Weaving forward through history, we meet groups of children who have treated the wardrobe as a place of solace, secrets and safety, right up to a museum exhibit in the modern day where two children hide from their school trip. Upstairs in our intimate Studio Theatre, our amazing set builders gave us a fully rotating and opening wardrobe which enthralled our audiences. This was a show like no other!
In this exciting new play, the audience are faced with the question 'what exactly does it mean to win?' On a reality television show, six remarkable geniuses compete for the coveted Golden Brain trophy. But these geniuses are just kids, each with their own character and quirks which set them apart from the rest. Throughout the show, Christou creates six fantastically human children - insecure, dependent, just trying to fit in - and pits them against the almost robotic Producers who are trying to use them for profit. Additionally, this production gave our Junior Company the rare opportunity to work in our intimate Studio Theatre, where the audience are within touching distance and there's no room for mistakes. Luckily, they took all of this in their strides and were truly remarkable in bringing this challenging production to life.
Here's a rare picture of our backstage antics - while a thunderstorm swelled onstage, our spare performers were out in the wings creating as much noise as they could!
This Christmas, the time came to produce another pantomime - oh yes it did! Times were tough in Nottingham as the money-grabbing Prince John exploited the townsfolk through his tax-collecting sidekick, the Sheriff of Nottingham. If only there was a hero to save the day... enter Robin Hood! Featuring the timeless pantomime jokes and gags we Brits know and love, and a host of colourful, dashing and dramatic characters, this show was a real, feel-good end to the year.
Power. Paranoia. Obsession. Guilt. Madness. This is one of Shakespeare's most infamous tragedies and our talented Senior Company leapt at the challenge to bring it to life. Set against the living backdrop of a coven of witches playing a mischievous game of chess, our interpretation sought to explore which characters were truly behind the fateful events that unfold in this powerful play. Our Company truly rose to the challenge, working double-time to master Shakespeare's language and the dramatic depths of each character and their choices. It was tough, but we are so proud that we pulled it off!
Boy has a secret: the power to freeze time with a click of the fingers! At first, his new-found talent brings fantastic fun and mischief... but then, things go wrong. Can Boy learn to control his powers before it's too late?
This performance was devised by our Junior Company. They were given the stimulus 'powers' and immediately locked onto controlling time - it was a fantastic instinct and we jumped at it! After a few weeks of gathering ideas, Becca took the storyline we'd created and turned it into a fully scripted piece. It was a lovely way to work!
Putting our full-company production back at Christmas where it belongs. Meet Cyril, Anthea, Robert and Jane; four children who are evacuated to the North as war rages in London. There, they meet a mysterious creature - the Psammead - who can grant their wishes. But what should they wish for? And what should they do when the consequences aren't what they anticipated?
A long-overdue full-company production after all the restrictions the pandemic brought us. This Alice, parentless and struggling to find herself, knocks herself on the head and finds herself seeing talking rabbits. As she descends into Wonderland, the outrageous and audacious characters around her guide her to find the answer to the question which has been plagueing her for her whole life: who am I?
Our 35 members divided into five groups to perform a series of one-act plays. From Wilde's sophisticated humour, through spooky Victorian London, and all the way to toyland, audiences and members alike enjoyed these performances thoroughly.
Postponed due to Covid, we were eventally able to stage this production three months later than planned. A classic Victorian gothic story of horror and morals: The upright Dr Jekyll devises a way to separate himself from his base urges. This manifests as Mr Hyde, an evil and villainous creature who stalks the streets causing chaos and disruption wherever he goes. This production featured a creepy chorus of damned and damaged Victorian peasants, meaning that the makeup was memorable.
During the Coronavirus Pandemic, our regular theatre sessions were put on hold. During this time, we embarked on a number of projects to keep our members in touch and give them the creative outlet that many craved. These projects included:
> The Coronavirus Time Capsule: a weekly video challenge where our members responded to stimuli created by Company Three youth theatre. Watch the Seniors' videos here.
> Radio Plays: splitting our members into groups, we cast, rehearsed and recorded four radio plays which were shared with family and friends.
> An outdoor sharing of a play rehearsed by our Junior Company, on the hottest day imaginable!
> KRYPTmas Entertainment: for two subsequent Christmases (2020 and 2021), we produced a performance made up of snippets and sketches. The first was collated into a YouTube performance, while the second was performed live at the theatre. Memorably, the Junior Company's production ended with each member holding up a letter to read 'MERRY CHRISTMAS'. As Covid was still rife, and isolation rules strict, a number of our members could not attend the show. The final scene - to scores of audience laughter and applause - is pictured below...
KRYPT's first ever foray into pantomime! Two normal sisters find themselves sucked into Pantoland through a storybook. There, they must help the good fairy rescue the land from Bumbling Barry before it is too late. Travelling through Jack and the Beanstalk, Dick Whittington, Snow White and Cinderella, this production was like four for the price of one - with added dance moves!
In wartime Britain, a new craze swept the nation: the infamous photographs of Cottingley Fairies, taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths. This play follows an ambitious young reporter who seeks to expose the youngsters as frauds, but finds that there may be more to the story than meets the eye.
Our take on a fast-paced farce: a cast of classic Cluedo-esque characters and a series of uncanny almost-famous detectives meet at a manor house to investigate a murder. Narrated by the ghost of the murdered mistress, this production incoroprated an audience vote on the guilty party. Breaking the third-wall is fun!
A new adaptation of J.M. Barrie's story, written specifically for the KRYPT Company. The three Darling children are whisked away to Neverland with the infamous Peter Pan. There, they meet Tinkerbell, the Lost Boys and make enemies amongst Captain Hook's notorious pirate gang.
A classic tale of love and life in regency society, and a challenge for our Seniors to mimic the stiff and subtle relationships between beloved and well-known characters. All while wearing period costume!
Adapted from Roald Dahl's beloved book, our Juniors got the opportunity to stretch their acting muscles in this playful production. Charlie Bucket wins the opportunity of a lifetime - a tour of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. What he doesn't know is that he's competing with the colourful characters he meets for inheritance of the whole place!
The original inspiration for Disney's Frozen, this traditional tale is darker than it gets credit for. When the Snow Queen's mirror breaks, a tiny shard of glass becomes embedded in Kai's eye, turning him evil. It is up to his devoted friend Gerda to track him down and save him from the evil queen's clutches before it's too late.
This wonderful tale of Mrs Kay’s progress class’ trip to Conwy Castle was a great choice for our senior group as it requires everyone to be on stage for most of the play. It was a real challenge to stage because of this and trying to work out where everyone should sit on the coach took some working out! A funny and poignant tale which explores education issues still relevant today.
Written especially for the Junior Company, this play explores the imagination of young Sam Brookes, a 10 year old girl with a big imagination. School is closed for the day, due to snow, but Mum and Dad are too busy working to play with Sam, so she seeks revenge and steals their laptops. Full of larger than life characters, this story gave the company a lovely opportunity to have some fun on stage.
Set in Victorian London, the story of Ebeneezer Scrooge and his clerk Bob Cratchett was an obvious choice for a Christmas play and audiences were delighted by this re-telling of the classic story. The KRYPT senior group members rose to the challenge of playing characters from a long gone era and the girls did an admirable job of being men.
Performed on the main stage at the Rose Theatre.
The heartwarming tale of the Shoemaker, his wife and the delightful elves that visit in the night is another wonderful Christmas story. This was the first production for the newly formed KRYPT Junior Company, many of whom are as young as eight years of age.
Performed on the main stage at the Rose Theatre
The story of 'Red' evolved from the traditional tale of 'Little Red Riding Hood' and turned into a modern day murder investigation. Week by week the story was devised by the members, improvised and then written up into a script by youth theatre leader Helen Timmins. Every group member played an integral part in both the devising and the performance of the final play.
Performed in the studio at The Rose Theatre.
