The Abingdon Foundation, Park Road, Abingdon, Oxford OX14 1DE 01235 521563 • Edited by Julia Cooke – [email protected] 01235 849123 • Design – www.petergreenland.com Abingdon Out of the Past @abingdonschool @abingdonschool @abingdon_school linkedin.com/school/abingdonschool A School for Stars Ten years ago, the School’s production of Bernstein’s Candide featured three Abingdonians whose stars are currently burning brightly. Toby Marlow (OA 2013), who played Candide, is the co-author with Lucy Moss of the sensational West End and Broadway hit, SIX The Musical. At the Tony Awards in June, which recognise excellence in live Broadway theatre, SIX received eight nominations and won the Best Music and Lyric award together with the award for the musical with the best costume design. Toby’s Candide co-star, Kit Young (OA 2013), who played both Voltaire and Dr Pangloss, is currently starring as Jesper Fahey in the Netflix fantasy series Shadow and Bone. The cast included the counter-tenor Hugh Cutting (OA 2015) who last November took first prize in the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Awards and has just been named one of Radio 3’s New Generation Artists for 2022-24. The Amey Theatre has been a nursery for stars ever since it first opened in 1980 with the junior production, Dracula Spectacula, where, ‘from his first appearance, all was dominated by Toby Jones’s (OA 1985) masterly performance as Dracula, highly sophisticated, debauched and energetic in the pursuit of his evil ends, in spite of what looked to be a very cumbersome set of false teeth.’ The first senior production, Oh What a Lovely War, saw author Ben Macintyre (OA 1982) play a pierrot whilst West End producer Julius Green (OA 1982) took charge of properties. Four years later, Toby played Dromio of Ephesus in A Comedy of Errors ‘with the typical self-assurance of a man who eats comedy roles for breakfast.’ A knack he hasn’t lost over the years as his role in The Detectorists will testify. Among the other inhabitants of Ephesus was Radiohead’s Thom Yorke (OA 1987), who later made ‘an excellent narrator’ in Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. In 1984, Yorke’s music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream was praised for its excellent contribution to the play’s pace and atmosphere by Tom Hollander (OA 1984) – Major Dalby in the recent BBC production of The Ipcress File. Out of the Distant Past Abingdon’s first international film star, Nigel Bruce (OA 1912), was best known for his role as Dr Watson to Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes. A fine cricketer, ‘undoubtedly the best batsman in the team’, he played for the 1st XI for three successive years, 1910-12. Nigel Bruce appeared in 78 films and after his move to Hollywood captained the Hollywood Cricket Club. Toby Marlow as Candide Kit Young as Voltaire Hugh Cutting as Vanderdendur Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon Nigel Bruce in the 1st XI 1911 Toby Jones as Count Dracula
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