This week saw the climax of the College’s annual Declamations competition, a contest that has been running in its current form at least since the Second World War and which saw almost 650 boys involved in the first round last month.
Fifteen members of Common Room whittled the semi-finalists selected by Form Masters down to six finalists for each year, and they performed to their peers in the newly refurbished Silk Hall on Monday morning. The Adjudicator, Mr Simon Ammora of the Dragon School, delivered his perspicacious and enthusiastic judgements on a very wide variety of pieces, from film speeches, to well-known and obscure poems, to more esoteric pieces from the modern, Netflix world.
Worthy winners were Dominic (K, Shells), Luke (D, Removes), Laszlo (C, 5ths), Kumar (F, 6.1s) and Guy (C, 6.2), who performed again, along with the 10 other boys who made the podium on Monday and five more wonderful ‘Warden’s picks’, at the Reprise in Coffee Shop on Wednesday. These renditions, to a more intimate audience, tended if anything to be even better than those of the Finals, and drew a range of strong emotions from those present. The overall Victor Ludorum and winner of the Elizabeth Madgen Prize was announced at the end of the evening, and the sewing box trophy was received by a very surprised and delighted Luke, knocking Kumar off his throne after two consecutive successes. Mr Ammora had been impressed by the simple but wholly effective delivery of a letter from his Great-Great Uncle to his mother, bidding her goodbye as he went into battle on the Somme in 1916. It was marvellous to see the words brought alive by Luke’s performance, and not a few members of the audience were seen wiping away a tear as Luke revealed that a few days after the letter was sent Captain Stirling was reported missing in action. The twenty year old’s body was never found.
This kind of individually meaningful, original Declamation is one of the things that keeps the competition valued and fresh, along with new performances of some old favourites and all kinds of material in between. We look forward to the next evolution of the tradition in 2027.
