On Thursday 18 and 25 April, the Lower IV cohort took off for their Drama and Latin trip to see Hadestown in the West End, an acclaimed musical phenomenon recounting ” a version of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Eurydice, a young girl looking for something to eat, goes to work in a hellish industrial version of the Greek Underworld to escape poverty and the cold, and her poor singer-songwriter lover Orpheus comes to rescue her”.
The students loved the London atmosphere, the retelling of this Classical tale, the Jazz flavoured music, the costumes and set design and the songs of course – they still come to lessons singing to them!
But enough with my words, let’s look at some students’ reviews!
Ms Lopresti
Milla: Best show I have ever watched. I was so intrigued the whole time and it was one of the best trips of all time. I am so happy I went to see this show. It made me cry multiple times and it had such a meaningful story that was so lovely to experience. Thank you so much to the wonderful teachers who took us on this amazing trip-it was so fun. Our seats were amazing and all the actors and actresses were so inspiring. All the teachers were so lovely and made our trip so exciting and cool. I loved how we were able to get ice-cream at the interval. The story line was so interesting and emotional. A big thank you to anyone involved in running this trip. It was such a magical experience.
Grace: Hadestown was such a blast and I had so much fun. This was hands down one of the best musicals I have ever watched from the on stage effects to the cast themselves and the transforming. Everything was amazing and it took everyone on an incredible ride. I would definitely recommend it and I would love to see it again. Along with that the ending left most people in tears.
Lottie: Hadestown was such a great musical distracting everyone from reality for a couple of hours and transporting us to the world (and underworld) of Hades, Persephone, Orpheus and Eurydice. It was an amazing performance with everything from headlamps to a revolving stage and swinging lights to a on-stage band. A massive variety of breathtaking lighting choices that were so cool to witness. The actors were incredible and pulled the audience in for a rollercoaster of a journey. A jaw-dropping end that had us all on the edge of our seats.
Julia: As a massive Greek Mythology fan, this was genuinely the best on-stage performance I have ever seen, and I am not being biassed. The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice was a myth I had known before. As the myth is a short-told story, I was wondering how it would play out on stage, and it played out extremely well. The set of the stage was perfect for representing the events. Every prop was easy to move and there were so many exits and entrances, which honestly surprised me every time they revealed a secret one. The two opposing turn tables on the lowest part of the stage made it more realistic when the characters were struggling/walking/running. However, the part that surprised me the most was the rising platform and the fog machines that appeared as the main events (alongside the swinging lamps) in the song “Wait for Me”, the second-to-last song in Act 1. As well as all of this, the live music added to the atmosphere of the scene. For example, “Chant,” where the music played louder and the ensemble added themselves as ‘instruments’. Despite the small cast, the stage performance was as good as, say, Hamilton. Every single actor or actress had a talent I’ve never seen before. In addition, they pulled off the serious topics incredibly well, while still making it relatively humorous. The different genres of songs were performed well despite having to be able to pull off each and every one of them.
