The Wasteland

After the heady successes of Grease Yaka and the Championship victory at the Inter School Shakespeare Drama Competition the previous year, and right in the middle of preparations for Dracula!, AnandaDrama’s entry to the Royal Drama Comp in April was intended to give maximum exposure to the young talent unearthed during the Inter House Drama Competition held a few weeks before.

Featuring our fifth original entry at this competition in as many years, The Wasteland was set in a post industrial, apocalyptic and cannibalistic world dominated by religious totalitarianism. Rife with allusions to the eponymous poem by T. S. Eliot, the play centred on the growing conflict between the society’s Manager and its Deacon, caused by the sudden advent of a lone mystic who might be the Sage foretold in scripture.Although the play did not proceed beyond the semifinals of the competition, it was a valuable learning experience for the very young cast that took part: 17 of the 28 cast members were first time actors aged fifteen and below—the largest number of new comers in any play staged by Ananda to date.