Derbyshire’s Repton School has shaped generations of pupils who have flourished in professions of all types, including pupils who have gone on to enjoy thriving careers as dramatists, actors, and scriptwriters. The school boasts an esteemed history of high-level drama performances and, to this day, offers an enriching creative arts programme that encourages pupils to develop self-expression through the mediums of drama, music, and dance.

Here, we’ll explore the productions that pupils have staged at Repton between the 1700s and the present day.

Repton School’s Performing Arts Roots

Although pupils studied drama at Repton as early as the 1700s, the lack of documentation from this time means we can only see fleeting glimpses of the school’s early performances. However, records show that the first play performed at the school was The Siege of Damascus, which pupils staged during the headmastership of Dr Prior in the 1770s. The production took place at the end of Big School, which supposedly accommodated an audience of up to 400 and is now home to Repton’s Library. It is doubtful as to whether The Siege of Damascus was an original production or one of a series of annual performances. Regardless, its significance is poignant as the first recorded production at Repton.

19th-Century Drama at Repton School

Records show that Reptonians performed at least nine plays between 1805 and 1823, including Addison’s Cato, Brown’s Barbarossa, Murphy’s The Orphan of China, and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Macbeth.

Repton only has a record of one production performed in the later 19th century (Knowles’ Virginius), but there are some captivating accounts of other performances preserved in Robert Bigsby’s History of Repton. These accounts note that each play started with a prologue and finished with an epilogue written by the pupils. These prologues and epilogues usually included ostentatious, humourous, and self-deprecating lines about the quality of the acting. At the time, Repton displayed a motto above the stage (“Oramus veniam”, meaning “we beg your pardon”), which emphasised the humour that pupils used in these productions.

That said, an account from The Derby Mercury in 1814 suggests that the pupils didn’t need to be so modest: “The Play of Julius Caesar was performed by the young gentlemen of Repton School to an audience consisting of no less than 300 of the principal gentry of the neighbourhood, who will long retain the remembrance of the scenic treat they received.” The Derby Mercury gave a taste not only of the atmosphere created for locals but also of the great sense of social occasion enjoyed by all who attended: “...dancing was kept up with great spirit till a late hour”.

In 1821, Repton made more space for its productions by removing the fixed wooden pews that boxed in either side of the stage.

Regardless of these memorable forays from the early 19th century, there seems to have been a lull in Repton’s plays after 1823 for over 100 years. During this period, it seems the only dramatic excursions pupils took part in were Speech Days, when pupils would recite speeches or perform small ensemble extracts. However, in the later 19th century, Repton hosted frequent entertainment for pupils that featured missionary lecturers, ventriloquists, and Magic Lantern shows.

20th-Century Drama at Repton School

The early 20th century saw the actor Basil Rathbone join Repton. He attended the School between 1906 and 1910 and was affectionately known as “Ratters” amongst the pupils. In 1911, Rathbone made his first appearance on stage at Ipswich’s Theatre Royal, where he played Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew. He went on to perform around the world in an array of Shakespeare’s plays, including Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like It, Henry V, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He then appeared in over 70 films, including costume dramas, swashbucklers, and horror films. He most famously played Sherlock Holmes in a series of 14 Hollywood films produced between 1936 and 1946. In 1948, he won a Tony Award for being the “Best Actor in a Play”.

100 years ago, the fledgling Repton Amateur Drama Society launched its inaugural production. Two young pupils, Maurice Colbourne and Vincent de Ferranti convinced the staff that the society could be a success, and the society premiered its first production on Dec. 19, 1911. This production featured an abridged Julius Caesar and a piece by William Wymark Jacobs entitled The Ghost of Jerry Bundler.

While some people affirmed that the production would be a farce, others prophesied its downfall. On the 19th, however, the school received a surprise. The performance was an outstanding success. Colbourne and De Ferranti were singled out for exceptional praise and acclamation. Colbourne went on to pursue an acting career and become a renowned man of the theatre. He specialised in George Bernard Shaw’s plays and toured both the UK and North America. He also appeared in various films and television programmes and returned to Repton in 1957 to play Dr Pears in the anniversary production of A Masque of Schollers.

Reptuctoo

Despite the success of Repton’s Drama Society, traces of productions by this group faded after a performance of The Importance of Being Ernest in June 1912. The next evidence of a Repton production dates back to June 1919, after the First World War, when Gilbert Stocks and his talented pupils wrote an entertaining and witty musical called Reptuctoo. The plot of this musical revolved around the founding of a sister school of Repton in Timbuctoo. The principal pupil lyricist Eric Maschwitz later found fame as the writer of classics like A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square and These Foolish Things. Today, many consider Reptuctoo a collaborative treasure and regret that the school can’t revive the piece (the music is missing and some of the lyrics are politically incorrect).

“O I’m the Captain of Games I am, I am

I’m Captain of cricket and football, what!

I never do work, not a stroke, not a jot,

As for winning you cups, why a dozen I’ve got.

Lord, I’m not a go-to-the-grubbery, cry-baby-blubbery,

India-rubbery swot, that I’m not, that I’m not.”

[Lyrics from Repuctoo]

Following the production of Reptuctoo, drama at Repton picked up remarkably. In 1921, Mr Crommelin-Brown wrote, produced, and largely performed Housemaster or Highwayman, and, by 1927, House plays had become more popular at Repton. Then, Mr Balmforth produced the school’s first complete Greek play, The Agamemnon. In 1932, Repton performed its first staff play, Captain X, for pupils. Plays like these became a regular delight in school life. Repton then began performing French plays, including The Gondoliers in 1934. By the mid-1930s, Repton produced a play at least once a year. Then, in 1937, the pupils performed in Everyman at the Parish Church. However, Pears School (Repton) remained the usual venue for productions and saw two outstanding productions in this period: St Joan in 1939 and Hamlet in 1940.

Repton School’s 400 Hall

In June 1959, Repton chose Hamlet as its opening performance for its brand new 400 Hall. Despite the building work that had been underway since summer 1957, the large cast rehearsed meticulously amidst workmen and scaffolding, under the direction of teacher Mike Charlesworth. The production was a success, and a local newspaper declared it: “without the slightest doubt the best school production of a Shakespearian play that I have ever seen”. Charlesworth emerged as one of Repton’s most charismatic and inspirational masters. As Director of Drama, he was responsible for more than 50 productions until his retirement in 1989.

In 2013, Repton upgraded its historic 400 Hall theatre with a RIBA-award-winning, multi-million-pound redevelopment. This redevelopment featured the addition of modern sound and lighting production equipment so that pupils could enjoy industry-standard facilities. Repton also had the viewing gallery lowered so that all pupils could see the stage comfortably. The 400 Hall and its equipment provide the foundations for Repton pupils to bring outstanding productions to fruition.

Boys Playing Female Roles

Historically, it was common practice for boys to play female roles in productions, and Repton was originally a boys’ school. Many of the boys found themselves trying to overcome clumsiness in their portrayals of women. Richard Coe, who played Gertrude in Hamlet, recalled his experience in his autobiography:

“I am seized on by the costume-squad and fitted into a tight, dark-clinging velvet bodice padded out with breasts, and voluminous Elizabethan skirts, and blood-red velvet mules, and I am taught to walk like a Queen, and how to hold a skirt while negotiating steps or stairs, and how to feel myself into being-a-woman. I resist, I am deliberately awkward. It would be all too easy, and I don’t want anyone to know how easy.”

Performance Innovations

In the later part of the 20th century, Repton hosted innumerable House plays, school plays, and exciting innovations in drama. In particular, the school launched its First Year Drama Festival in 1988, which proved one of the most entertaining evenings of the year for Repton’s younger pupils. Each House performed a dramatised extract from a play, story, or novel.

In 1991, Repton established its Lower School Arts Festival. Charlesworth’s successor Martin Amherst Lock worked with Nigel Kew to direct several highly accomplished productions for this Festival, including The Beggar’s Opera, A Man for All Seasons, Amadeus, and Cabaret. Then, John Sentance’s arrival in 1999 saw considerable growth in the number of pupils taking drama. Sentance directed and successfully oversaw productions like What the Butler Saw, Twelfth Night, and The Roses of Eyam.

21st-Century Drama at Repton School

In 2003, Repton modernised its performing arts facilities with its new Studio Theatre, which was largely financed by Robert Beldam and his Drama Trust. At this point, Guy Levesley became indispensable in bringing Repton’s productions to the stage. These productions included A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Wind in the Willows, Macbeth, On the Razzle, Teechers, and Revisor.

Levesley also revamped the Charity Cabaret, enriching it with a slickness and professionalism of West End standard. He had a strong sense of what worked on stage and how to create it. This was evident in the Son et Lumiére, which Repton staged in the Garth over five nights in 2007. To celebrate Repton's 450th anniversary, Levesley seamlessly blended all the different elements of the production to give the School a breathtaking show.

Reptonian Actors, Playwrights, and Theatrical Managers

It would take a lengthy and detailed article to explore the careers and lives of the Reptonians who have gone on to become actors, playwrights, and theatrical managers. The 1990s alone produced Tom Chambers, Nicholas Burns, Tom Daley, Ben Cavey, George Rainsford, Geoffrey Lumsden Brook, Michael Philip Des Barres, Edward van den Bergh, Henry Edward Blyth, John Paddy Carstairs, Archibald Pechy, Norman Hunter, and Robert Nesbitt. The number of former pupils who have followed performing arts careers is remarkable considering the ambivalent reception of Repton’s dramatic arts 100 years ago.

Today’s pupils continue to enjoy Repton’s unique performing arts curriculum and take part in a range of productions, making the most of the school’s state-of-the-art drama, dance, and music facilities. A third of Reptonians play at least one instrument and perform classical and contemporary pieces in the school’s concert hall (The Beldam Hall). Meanwhile, pupils continue to perform in the 400 Hall, where they partake in three large-scale productions each year.

Learn more about Repton’s performing arts curriculum.

About Repton School

Repton is a historic, independent boarding school that offers a broad and balanced curriculum for more than 1,000 pupils aged 3–18. Pupils enjoy taking their studies on the site of a 12th-century Augustinian Priory that combines historic buildings with high-tech, modern facilities. The school’s dedicated body of teachers and pastoral staff work collaboratively to shape pupils for the futures they envision.