Tony Raven sent me a message. It seems that he would like my help with some drama production or other, something about a harvest festival. It is on the tip of my tongue to refuse, then Raven mentions that he wants me to play Fidel Castro.
“What has Castro got to do with harvest festival?” I ask open mouthed with amazement. Raven's capacity for coming up with ridiculous premises for his drama productions, usually if you dig deep enough there is some kind of logic to what he is saying. The harvest festival idea however seems to have come from somewhere very different and I wonder if he has been spending too much time in Mrs Orme's office and has been affected by the Gin fumes?
“It's an antithesis!” quotes the great one as if that settled the matter.
He tells me that Stuart is will also be in the play. If this is supposed to encourage me, it is not particularly effective. Details of the stage production are a little sketchy which is often the way where TR is concerned. I don't agree as such, but also don't refuse in sufficiently robust fashion to put Tony off.
Editors note: Its not clear exactly what Mr Raven was planning however a memo from the Headmistress to the English teacher dated several days later offers a flavour of what he had in mind...
***MEMO
From: Helen Orme
To; Anthony Raven
Subject: HARVEST FESTIVAL PREPARATIONS
I have noted your suggestions for this years harvest festival with some concern. Please note the following:
1.Harvest festivals celebrations are usually included as part of the morning assembly, therefore a 2 hour performance could be difficult to arrange.
2.I doubt our pupils would appreciate 'moments' from Dylan Thomas' “Under Milk Wood.”
3.The purchase of a hammer and sickle flag some 20 feet wide could be both expensive and lead to some difficult questions from the board of governors.
4.As far as I am aware we do not possess a 150 piece orchestra.
5.Aside from the cost of hire, I would not support the purchase of a number of imitation Kalashnikov rifles – were they to fall into the hands of the pupils the implications for other schools in the borough do not bear thinking about!
6.The woodwork department do not feel that will be able to produce a scale model of Coventry Cathedral, especially if the intention is for the cast of the show to smash it.
Given the predilection of many of our pupils for acts of violence and mayhem, I would stress that our harvest festival production should focus on the 'seasons of mist' aspects rather the activities of a man who is still regarded as a terrorist by many authorities.
Please arrange for a more traditional harvest festival celebration.
Helen Orme
***
Editors note: Raven, his dreams of dramatic excellence shattered or at least put on hold went off to make plans for the harvest festival on a far less grandiose scale. Cook's diary records no major incidents for the remainder of that month. The third member of the trio, Mark Powell, returned from a late holiday in Romania towards the end of the month and the three attempted to get to know the new faces around them. From one or two entries its likely that Cook was fondly imagining that things would settle down and there would be a chance for people to do whatever they felt they should be doing.But Tracy Piner; newly appointed head girl had been taking stock of the prefect force and didn't like what she saw. Piner was academically bright, but lacked the experience (and possibly the charisma or sheer chutzpah ) to run the sixth form. From the information provided its fairly clear that Tracy was not impressed with Cook's view on how to run things, but it probably never occurred to her Cook's 'style' or lack of it owed much to experience rather than strategy.
A couple of weeks of observation and Tracy decided it was time for her to take charge.
***
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