The French theatre company Onatti Productions Ltd visited Normanhurst School and performed a play entitled “Mes chers voisins”, on Wednesday 22 of November.
The play was performed by two native actors and it was aimed at different ages and abilities, in KS3 and KS4. All Normanhurst and Braeside pupils in Year 8, Year 9 and French GCSE pupils had the chance to watch the performance. The play contained some participation with the audience but this was carefully devised and brought a humorous and enjoyable element to the performance.
Onatti work hard to make sure the language in the play was pitched correctly to complement the learning and level of the audeince. The actors used a lot of mime and repetition and certain tricks to enhance pupils’ enjoyment. The aim of the show was to boost the pupils’ confidence, so they could leave, having watched a play in a foreign language, been able to follow the story, recognised many words and phrases, as well as enjoyed and related to the story.
To take the authentic French practice further, Braeside pupils are currently contributing reviews in French on the play on the Padlet application, which can be found HERE.