St Andrews International High School in Blantyre on Saturday finished its four performances for the production that combines drama, music and dance titled Les Miserables.
Featuring a huge cast of students from lower grades to upper grades, the musical— which looks at the themes of love and sincerity, forgiveness, sacrifice and justice as well as injustice— attracted impressive audiences over the four performances.
Les Miserables is a French epic historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published on March 31, 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century.
In Les Miserables, Hugo asserts that love and compassion are the most important gifts one person can give to another. It follows Jean Valjean, an ex-convict as he seeks redemption and is pursued by the relentless Javert, while also exploring themes of love, revolution and social injustice in 19th century France.
Some of the characters in the play include Jean Valjean, Javert, Fantine and Cosette. The novel has been popularised through numerous adaptations for film, television and the stage, including a musical. It started with a freeof-charge performance on Wednesday, when it targeted the creative sector, before three sold out shows on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The performance on Friday attracted the presence of renowned artists in musician Patience Namadingo and award-winning filmmaker Shemu Joyah.
The school’s drama teacher Kevin Troughton described Les Miserables as one of the biggest musicals, hence their decision to adapt it. “Patronage in all the four performances has been massive.
The students put out great performances and it all comes from the six months rehearsals we had. They have had to jell, share ideas and learn throughout,” Troughton said.
He said musicals were challenging in that they demanded more work in music, drama and dancing, meaning that there was appreciation for different art forms. Again, we picked Les Miserables because the story is powerful and connects well with Malawi.
It is looking at poor people, who are going through difficult times and are trying to fight the rich in order to earn freedom,” Troughton said.
He said in adapting such productions, they were also trying to explore other styles in theatre.
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