Forbidden Planet Performance

On the 5th April 2006, after weeks and weeks of rehearsals, not forgetting all the Saturdays we had to give up to rehearse, the school production of ‘Return to the Forbidden Planet’ finally took off.

The musical is based loosely on the 1950 sci-fi movie ‘Forbidden Planet’ and Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’, and is a parody of old sci-fi movies, and spoofs of all Shakespeare’s well known plays, using well known phrases such as “Two beeps or not to beeps” and “Prospero, where for art thou Prospero?” Due to the big link with Shakespeare, the play was also spoken in Shakespearean language.

The story was that the spaceship Albatross, which was being controlled by Captain Tempest (Terry McKindley), was pulled towards a planet.  On that planet was mad Dr Prospero  (Kallum Taylor), his companion Ariel The Robot (Daniel Southern) and his daughter Miranda (Becky Price).  Prospero told Tempest and his crew the story of his wife, Gloria (Hannah Wrigley), who sent him up on the planet, whilst he was working on a formula to change the world.  The ship’s cook, aptly named Cookie (Michael Perks) falls in love with Miranda, but she doesn’t return his love, and instead sets her heart on the captain.  Bosun (Becky Buck) and the Navigation Officer (Naomi Hayes) both try to help the Captain and Cookie with their worries.  Prospero finds out that the ship’s Science Officer is in fact his wife, Gloria, and after an emotional scene, he sets off to rid the ship of the monster who is attacking them.  The Captain then sets off into space, with a enigmatic ending…

A rather confusing story but enjoyable to watch, the musical contained such classic songs as “Good Vibrations”, “Monster Mash” and “Born To Be Wild”.  The cast delivered the play with great humour, which made the play extremely funny.

All three nights were as good as one another and all of the cast worked well together to make this production absolutely, splendidly amazing.  Not one bad thing could be said about the play, the band, the producers or the cast, because they all put 100% into it all!

A big thank you to Mrs Whittingham, Miss Robinson, Mrs Paton, Mr Thirsk,
Mrs Allerston, and all the cast, band and crew! This was one of the best productions the school has ever done.

Terry McKindley
Retiring Headboy

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