On Thursday 24 and Friday 25 June Univ Players staged a promenade performance of extracts from George Sand’s Gabriel. Adapted by Clare Bayley, Univ’s Visitor in the Creative Arts, and directed by Nina Lewis (2019, English) with an all-student cast, the performance took the College buildings and gardens as the inspirational backdrop.

Set in a Shakespearean world of cross-dressing confusion, Sand’s 1839 play challenges rigid gender roles, and was never professionally performed in her lifetime.

Of the performance Clare says, “I’m so pleased and relieved that we managed to do all four performances of Gabriel. The director, Nina Lewis and the cast remained calm and resilient in the face of exam pressure and Covid scares. The rain and restrictions held off and it was a great pleasure to have live theatre bursting back into our lives again.”

The full play will be performed in Univ in 2022. Our thanks to all involved who made this possible under challenging circumstances; please enjoy these extracts below:

Published: 6 July 2021

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