Lower Sixth Former Simeon Gay helped wow around 4,000 Spanish teenagers when he played the part of Tybalt in a traveling production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
The play, which was a simplified version of Shakespeare’s tale of woe, was performed in four cities over four days (Albacete, Murcia, Toledo and Madrid) during December. Simeon was joined on stage by eight other actors from the University of Bedfordshire’s Drama department.
The group performed twice every morning to audiences of around 600 teenagers made up from local universities and schools. Each theatre came with its own idiosyncrasies – the Latina in Madrid especially as only half of the stage was available – this had a bearing on the moving of props, dances and fight scenes! The favourite was the Romea in Murcia, an old theatre dating back to 1875 which gave everyone the impression of performing in the Royal Albert Hall.
It was Simeon’s character who got the play rolling with his insulting of the Montague youths, and who by the end of the week had taken Romeo’s murderous sword in the belly eight times! (Hopefully this is not too much of a spoiler for our readers!) His commitment, along with all of his fellow actors, was significant and his acting ability most noteworthy.
Plans are in place for the actors to put on a week of performances in Madrid in the summer of 2021 – a dramatic end to Simeon’s school career!