13 March 2018
On Thursday 8 March, after months of rehearsals, Mme Maillot & the three of us (Trinity, Angel and I), went to King Alfred School to participate in a French drama festival. We performed a piece from ‘Le Dîner de Cons’. ‘Le Dîner de Cons’ is a French movie about a man called Pierre Brochant, who attends a weekly ‘idiots’ dinner’, to which he and his friends each bring the biggest idiot they can find; at the end of each dinner one idiot is crowned ‘champion idiot’.
In the scene we performed, Brochant, has hurt his back, so can’t go to the dinner, and his wife has just left him. ‘The idiot’, François Pignon, has come over to his house and is trying to help him get his wife back. Unfortunately, Pignon accidently makes things worse, firstly, by telling Brochant’s wife that he has a mistress and then by inviting a tax inspector to Brochant's house. Brochant is forced to quickly hide most of his valuables in an attempt to hide his tax evasion.
After arriving at King Alfred School, we had plenty of time to prepare and to calm our nerves before the competition began. Being the first school to perform, we were unsure of how the competition would be. However, our performance was perfect; the audience laughed at all the funny parts, and everything ran smoothly. As we went first it meant that we could enjoy all the other performances. At half time, lots of food was provided and we chatted with students from the other schools taking part. There were some highly memorable performances, including a piece called ‘Ma femme s’appelle Maurice’ which won the competition.
It was an amazing experience, which we all really enjoyed. So much, in fact, that I would like to take part again next year.
Estelle Alexandre, Year 11