Phileas Fogg, a British Theatre in Education company, visited Dalton on Monday 10 February. The TTO Brugklas enjoyed an unforgettable interactive two hour experience as they rehearsed and performed a show which explored the life and times of poor Victorian children. All  students were involved and played multiple roles while speaking English with professional actors. The invited audience of family and friends as well as the students all agreed that it was a highly successful, educational and enjoyable evening.

I found this the most fun theatre/musical I have ever done, and although this was only my second one, I still thought it was so much fun! 

I loved the actors! First of all, they were very funny and really good actors as well. It was also nice to do it with the whole group and that no one had phones or like phones weren’t involved! Secondly the play itself was really interesting, because it was informative, funny, and fun to do. I especially liked the subject, because it was about history and how the actors also told the story and explained themselves was really hard to believe that children our age did have to go true this. Although it was a bit hard to remember everything like; your lines, where to stand, your emotions etc. especially because it was in such brief time, I also thought that made it fun to watch for the parents as well. Last, I also liked that even without make-up the hats, umbrellas and coconuts also did the job!

I would love to do something like this next year, maybe with a little more time to learn everything and hopefully with full outfits and make-up if corona does not stand in our way! Of course, also with a different subject, but if the subject would be historical again, I would love that! As long as the Phileas Fogg company gives the workshop I can’t wait for the next time! I want to thank you, Ms. Mcmillan, all the other teachers and all the students who helped putting the play together with the Phileas Fogg company for us!

Sorcha Hogan

We had a great time making the play come to life. It was interesting because we did it all in around one hour. We came there not knowing the script or who we were going to be. It was a play about Victorians and the two theater teachers were Ben and Tabetha. They taught us the lines and it was very funny because when we accidentally said the wrong lines, they would correct us dramatically (in a good way). The play was about Victorian children and how they lived, the rich, the poor and the orphans. I was a dead body most of the time. It was great because the lines were not very hard and not too embarrassing. They divided the class into two halves because of corona and each one of them taught on half of the class. It was fun because you could see yourself on the livestream. Normally we would have a public clapping for us but sadly with the restrictions that were made by the government it was not allowed. The costumes were very simple, like an old beret or a farmer’s straw hat. It was great because everyone was smiling and happy, it all came together at the end even though I was not expecting it to. After the play we all went outside to play with a ball, and we had a great time. It was a great experience, and I would recommend it to other people who are interested in this sort of things.

Nico Dias Oosterkamp