The gymnasium is in a real state of agitation. In less than six days, students of Le Bocage will be presenting the annual school play. On Saturday, students between 11 and 18 years old will be transformed into the comic characters of Beauty & the Beast. The show will take place at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute (MGI) on Saturday evening at 7 pm. Tickets are available in all Otayo outlets, at the school or at the MGI on Saturday evening for Rs 125 for children of less than 12 years old and Rs 175 for adults.

“This is a family show that everyone will enjoy! As it is a fairy tale, we expect a lot of kids from all schools but I am sure that parents will be there as well,” claim the four students in charge of organising the show. But until D-Day, the students still have a lot on their plates. As they just came back from holidays yesterday, they have to make up for the lost time of these last few weeks. But they all look really determined to do their best to please the public on Saturday.

“I feel a bit anxious. I know my lines quite well but we still have a lot to do,” confides one of the youngest participants. If they can feel they are increasingly getting stage fright for Saturday, they are nevertheless very excited about this event. For some of them, it will be their first time on stage and they are quite nervous about it.

This is however not really the case for our four girls who are in their last year at school. “We are used to it now. We are in the school play every year but have been directing it only since last year,” explain Leanne and Khadeja. They started organising everything at the beginning of the year but serious rehearsals actually started in April… And there is still plenty to do.

Putting on a play implies a lot of sacrifice. “That’s true but it’s not a big problem for us. Teachers know we are involved in the play and they are quite lenient with us. In fact, it is only a matter of time management and experience has helped us deal with it,” they explain. Khadeja and Leanne are the official directors of the play – the former deals with actors individually while the latter “does a bit of everything” including choreography, costume design – but they would probably not be able to manage it all if they did not have the precious help of Fabienne and Payal.

But, more important for them is that they all have roles in the play. That’s actually what they like the most, “to be on stage”. Khadeja, who is the “Beast”, thinks it is “the best role she has ever played. It is so lively and these are definitely the best lines I have ever had”. As for Leanne (“Belle”) “this is quite a challenging role. Belle is not a character I can relate to. But I enjoy it!”

They willingly admit that they sometimes “go crazy” with the effort of organising the play but acting is their favourite hobby. “I don’t think we will do it as a profession because it is quite hard to achieve success in this sector. But we will definitely all continue doing it in our spare time at university,” Leanne points out.

The four students say they would love to open the play to actors from other schools but that would make things even more complicated. They lack logistics and time to be able to go ahead with this idea but “it would really be fantastic”.

For the time being, the actors must go back on stage and start rehearsing. Singers, dancers and actors have gathered in each and every corner of the gymnasium to try to perfect their contribution to the play. The four teachers in charge – Mrs Espiègle, Mrs Tranquille, Mrs Olivier, and Mr Williamson – are there to guide the students and make sure they are ready for their big night!