Meet Masie and Clem, Performing in This Year’s Shakespeare on the Lawn
This year’s Shakespeare on the Lawn, performed by Year 9 students, will be The Comedy of Errors; a fast‑moving farce built on mistaken identities, escalating confusion, and the comic potential of two sets of identical twins separated at birth.
Written early in Shakespeare’s career, the play blends slapstick humour with a tightly structured plot, creating a lively story set in the bustling city of Ephesus. Beneath the chaos lies a warm exploration of family, identity, and reunion, making it one of Shakespeare’s most enduring and entertaining comedies.
Excited to be performing this year, we met with Masie and Clem, who play Adriana and Luciana as they rehearsed together. Although they are both just at the beginning of learning and understanding their lines, it was clear to see how delighted both girls are with the roles they’ve been given, and how much they’re looking forward to being part of Shakespeare on the Lawn this year!
Working with Mrs Mayes and Mr Williams, they took time to talk about each of their characters, their relationship with one another and how this impacts the way they behave – and will behave, on stage. With parts of this play performed as verse, there’s no doubt that these young actors have their hands full getting to know their characters and the script, but it’s clear they’re excited and dedicated to doing their very best.
These early rehearsals are also important to support students in terms of understanding the not only the Shakespearean language itself, but the importance of emphasis, energy, pronunciation and elaboration in the way they perform lines. With characters written over 400 years ago, there are certain complexities that need to be understood in order for our students to be able to give their best performances, and to appeal and relate to our modern-day audiences – and of course, to ensure they do so in a comical way, to keep our audiences entertained and engaged.
Talking to Masie and Clem, it’s clear to see they’re enjoying themselves already, aware of the challenges but also excited in anticipation of performing in the weeks to come.
Maisie, who plays Adriana
Playing Adriana, who is married to Antipholus of Ephesus, one of the twin brothers at the heart of the play’s mistaken‑identity chaos, Maisie’s challenge is to play a character is consistently described as intense, loving, jealous, and outspoken, qualities that fuel both the comedy and the conflict.
Talking about how she felt to get the part, Maisie shared,
“Adriana is a fun character to play, and I was so excited to get the part. The language can be hard to understand and at times pronounce correctly, but Mrs Mayes and Mr Williams are helping us to do so. I’m looking forward to when I’ve learned all the lines, I completely understand my character as well as all of the others, and the performance comes together completely. With dancing, costumes and staging, I know it’s going to be a really brilliant experience.”
Clem, who plays Luciana
Clem plays Luciana, who is Adriana’s sister – originally written as a calm, idealistic, and traditionally minded woman, her character has been adapted to the 1970s version for this year’s performance, and she will be played as part of the wave of feminism from that era. Electing to be single and finding her sister’s marital problems very tedious, rather than her traditional character being meek and patient she does enjoy antagonising her sister rather a lot!
Clem spoke about her excitement at being selected to be part of the production,
“This is the part I wanted, so I was so pleased to get it! There are a lot of lines to learn, not just off by heart, but really learn and understand, because without that I won’t be able to perform them. I’m loving the sarcasm and humour of Shakespeare, it’s fun to play this part, especially opposite Masie, the sisterly rivalry is so much fun. One of the things I’m most looking forward to is making friendships and connections with other students in my year, it’s great to make new friends and find out more about each other, it really brings the year group together.”
Live performance is a wonderful experience, teaching and encouraging confidence, resilience and helping students manage nerves, stay focused and recover gracefully from any mistakes; key life skills for now and beyond School.
Everyone involved in this year’s production is incredibly excited about performing live on our Chapel lawn on Tuesday 30 June and Wednesday 1 July. Tickets will go on sale soon, we’ll share details as soon as they become available.
