Oakham School (1985-1992)

Matthew Macfadyen (92)
Matthew was the first Oakhamian to attend RADA. He began his professional career playing Antonio in The Duchess of Malfi with Cheek by Jowl. Since then he has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, as Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Charles Surface in The School for Scandal; as Prince Hal in Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2 at the National Theatre, and with many other theatre companies. Matthew has appeared in the West End as Elyot in Noel Coward's Private Lives and most recently as Jeeves in Perfect Nonsense. His film work includes playing Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice and Oblonsky in Anna Karenina. He is perhaps best known for his TV work, particularly Spooks, Any Human Heart and Ripper Street. He has won an RTS (Royal Television Society) Best Actor Award for Secret Life and a BAFTA for Criminal Justice.

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Luce a écrit:Pour le plaisir, voici le  théâtre d’Oakham School, côté "sortie de secours" / "entrée des artistes".

The Queen Elizabeth Theatre (225 places) a été inauguré en 1979 par Sa Majesté la reine Elizabeth II et a vu depuis plus de cent cinquante productions.

C'est donc là que Matthew a suivi des cours de théâtre, répété et joué ses dix-sept ou dix-huit pièces pendant les sept ans qu'il a passés à l'école.

This weekend Oakham School welcomed back nearly 200 former pupils and famous alumni including Matthew Macfadyen (92), Greg Hicks (71), Richard Hope (71) and Miles Jupp (98), to celebrate 30 years of show-stopping drama.

The event celebrated the 30th anniversary of the much-loved Queen Elizabeth Theatre (QET), as well as the drama that has taken place within it during this time. The day began with coffee and tours followed by current pupils staging On The Razzle by Tom Stoppard, the first major production in the QET in June 1984. They performed in front of a packed audience of alumni, including almost all of the members of the original cast. Whilst many of the students were understandably nervous to be performing in front of such a star-studded audience, they certainly didn’t let it show, as the play was a resounding success. Indeed, the cast were highly praised for their performance by all, with renowned actor Richard Hope saying, “Every one of you has a gift.”

In the afternoon, attendees then had the opportunity to watch an ‘Under the Spotlight’ question and answer session featuring some of Oakham’s most famous alumni. The panel was expertly hosted by Miles Jupp (98) who, along with considerable experience of stand-up comedy and acting, is certainly no stranger to playing a part in panel shows on TV. He introduced the guests in ascending order of age starting with Katie Hall (08) who is back from touring the UK with West Side Story, and Nicholas Banks (05) who has just finished filming The Secret Service, a spy film starring Colin Firth, Michael Caine and Samuel L Jackson. He then introduced Lydia Bewley (03) who is well known for her parts in many TV comedies and The Inbetweeners movies, and Fiona Sheehan (02) who, as well as many theatre and screen credits to her name, has recently become the UK voice of Google. Miles then presented two of his friends from his time at Oakham; Matthew Baldwin (96) who has worked at both the London Fringe and Edinburgh Festival and who has recently begun collaborating with fellow OO, Thomas Hescott (96), the next panellist to be introduced, a renowned writer and director Finally, Miles welcomed the well-known and highly regarded actors, Matthew Macfadyen (92), Greg Hicks (71) and Richard Hope (71) to the stage.

The Q&A session offered a unique and fascinating hour-long insight in to the world of entertainment, with all members of the panel answering a range of questions from Oakham’s Drama scholars. As well as having the audience and themselves in stitches, they also managed to give some candid advice to Oakham’s budding actors. They debated the difficulties of period drama and Shakespeare, as well describing why they preferred the stage to the big screen. The audience even learnt which roles the panel had found to be most challenging and what skills they wished they could improve upon. Whilst Katie Hall admitted that being able to dance as well as sing would be helpful to her career in musical theatre, Matthew Macfadyen confessed that he wished he hadn’t lied about being able to horse ride!

They all took the time to describe how their time at Oakham had prepared them for their life on stage. Matthew Macfadyen told the audience that as he had been in 18 plays during his time at Oakham, he felt like he had a “back catalogue” when he started his career. For Thomas Hescott, it was the work ethic that Oakham had instilled in him as a student, thanks to the full timetable of lessons and extra-curricular activities, which he has found to really benefit him in his career. Matthew Baldwin described the wonderful atmosphere the staff at Oakham generated, and how there were a great deal of people who would spend time with you to teach you about the arts. He said, “It was such a wonderfully creative environment that set me up for always wanting to be engaged in that kind of life.” The QET was also highly praised by the Q&A panel, with Lydia Bewley saying, “You guys are all so lucky to have this theatre – it is epic!”

The last question of the day asked the panel to think back to what was their most embarrassing moment during their dramatic careers at Oakham. Matthew MacFadyen described the “emotionally scarring” incident when he was sacked from the production of Macbeth (for being too much like a choirboy to play a murderer), whilst Thomas Hescott thought his rendition during the musical of The Fantasticks “finished his acting career” and sparked his career in writing and directing!

Many of the former pupils who attended the event had fond memories, or a special connection, with the theatre at Oakham. “There were seven decades of OOs represented at the event,” says current OO President Guy Schanschieff MBE (84), who played a part in the original performance in 1984. He also said that the event was “an acknowledgement of the powerful influence that Drama has had on the lives of so many of Oakham’s pupils through the years.”

Headmaster Nigel Lashbrook concluded the day by thanking all those involved, as well as saying that he “felt incredibly proud of what the cast have achieved”. He continued, “It has been a wonderful day celebrating a significant landmark and the important contribution that theatre has made to life at Oakham over the years.”

Luce a écrit:Beaucoup d'autres photos de la journée (voir la galerie de cette page). MM a naturellement posé avec les lauréats du Matthew Macfadyen Shield.

Our Performing Arts brochure shows a selection of Old Oakhamians that have excelled in Performing Arts. We want to continue nurturing the talent of Oakhamians by building a new Performing Arts Centre https://t.co/RSKtDG7ImE pic.twitter.com/y4HGSYp09t

— Oakham Foundation (@OakhamSchFndtn) 13 décembre 2017

Drama continues at Oakham with a successful, virtual, Macfadyen Shield!

The annual Interhouse Drama Competition normally sees pupils from across all year groups in the 10 Middle School Houses battle it out in the QET to win the coveted Macfadyen Shield, named in honour of Old Oakhamian actor, Matthew Macfadyen (92). This year the show still went on, albeit with some changes to the format and all taking place virtually.

“Instead of a group performance including pupils from across each House, we challenged pupils in different year group bubbles to take part in a series of monologues,” says Director of Drama, Gilly Norell. “Everyone was given the same stimuli of a selection of Shakespeare and contemporary monologues. The task was to use them as inspiration to create their own monologues or to re-invent them playing with the original text.”

The result was impressive, with all 10 Houses taking part and all entries streamed out to the Houses to watch. Understandably, many of the submissions focused on how the pandemic has impacted their lives – their own experiences of lockdown. Others included Shakespeare monologues and there was also a submission that focused on the life of Lee Harvey Oswald.
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Chapmans were declared this year’s winners

oldoakhamianclub
Congrats to Matthew Macfadyen on his BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor! Swipe to see some photos of Matthew as a pupil in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and as our Oakhamian cover star back in 2005!

The HBO series Succession may have ended, but the successes keep coming for Matthew Macfadyen.
Macfadyen won Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of ‘Tom Wambsgans’ in the critically acclaimed drama Succession at both the Golden Globes and the Emmys.
Succession debuted in 2018 and has had multiple nominations and wins since. This was Macfadyen's first Golden Globes nomination and win.
The now two-time Emmy winner also won Outstanding Supporting Actor at the Emmys, with Succession sweeping the nominations and wins.

Congratulations!