Abingdon’s Director of Drama, Ben Phillips, shares his perspective on the Senior production of Earthquakes in London - a play written by OA, Mike Bartlett in 2010. Earthquakes in London - the 2026 Abingdon School production For me, Jeremy’s essence - what has made him a true "one-off" in the world of education - is distilled entirely within his original production of this play. Directing Earthquakes in London during the 2025/26 year has been an exercise in profound reflection. It is a play that grapples with the collision of past, present, and future, examining how human agency shapes the destiny of our world. I first joined the Abingdon drama department in 2010, working under Jeremy after a five year hiatus of study. I arrived to find him in a state of creative electricity; he had just witnessed the premiere of OA Mike Bartlett’s epic at the National Theatre. Jeremy was struck by its urgent, "about-the-now" vitality. Characteristically, he decided that every pupil possible needed to experience it. We immediately swarmed a train to London with 30 students. On the return journey, Jeremy’s mind was racing. He didn't just want them to see the play; he wanted them to inhabit it. He set about staging a school production of a show so contemporary that the performance rights didn’t yet exist. But in the theatrical world, it’s often “who you know” - and Jeremy, of course, had taught Mike Bartlett. I was fortunate enough to assist Jeremy on that first ever amateur performance of the play, and I have never encountered anything like it since. It wasn't just that the play captured the zeitgeist; it was the electric, subversive energy that surged through the cast and crew. We felt we were doing something truly monumental. That was the hallmark of Jeremy’s tenure. He was never excited by the "hum-drum" of the every day - the predictable rhythms of lessons, marking, and essays were not what kept him coming into work. He viewed the stage not as a classroom, but as a crucible for life-changing experiences. He wanted the young people he mentored to feel like artists, to subvert the "school play" stereotypes, and to be part of a collective creative explosion that would remain with them forever. He instilled this fire in countless Abingdonians. Indeed, two members of that original cast went on to become BAFTAwinning actors and the writer of a smash-hit musical, respectively. They will undoubtedly tell you that Jeremy Taylor was a key architect of their journey (as would the man who wrote the play!). In a year of monumental transition for Abingdon - one defined by the forward-looking momentum of becoming co-educational - I have found myself doing something uncharacteristic: looking back. We know there's nothing to be done, so we're dancing and drinking as fast as we can. The enemy is on its way, but it doesn't have guns and gas this time. It has wind, rain, storms and earthquakes. Returning to this play fifteen years after it was written has been a strange mix of nostalgia and genuine alarm. While it feels almost funny to source "vintage" props like iPods, the core message hasn't aged at all. In fact, Robert’s stark warning at the end of Act III carries a weight in 2026 that it simply didn't have in 2010. Back then, it felt like a warning; today, it feels like a reckoning. I’ve always believed that the best drama is fundamentally about people. What makes Earthquakes in London one of my favourite plays is the way Bartlett takes massive, terrifying themes like climate change and makes them deeply personal. He has a gift for taking a global crisis and centring it on the lives of one family. It’s his focus on the human heart - with all its flaws and contradictions - that makes his work so gripping. Even after all this time, I humbly believe this play remains his greatest work. My reasons for revisiting this particular text are manifold. As we prepare for a new era, we have embraced the opportunity to collaborate with our partner schools, and I could not be prouder of the pupils I have been directing from John Mason, Larkmead and Abingdon. As ever, our incredible production team have worked tirelessly to bring this juggernaut of a play to life so imaginatively and seamlessly; and the creative energy of movement director, Selina March, is an enormous part of this production. However, this choice was also driven by a desire to offer the most fitting tribute possible to my former teacher and mentor, Jeremy Taylor, who retired this year after 28 years of service to Abingdon. I have known Jeremy "man and boy”. To list his accolades or map his achievements would be an impossible task. 17 abingdon.org.uk News Abingdon
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