The Exam by Andy Hamilton

It is important, particularly in Year 9, that students feel Drama is relevant and relatable.
Relationships with parents, struggles with mental health and exam pressure are always
topical subjects; add in a large dash of comedy and in Andy Hamilton’s play The Exam you
have a winning formula.

The play was commissioned and first performed as part of the National Theatre Connections
Festival. Hamilton will be well known to many students as the co-author of Outnumbered and
as a regular contributor to Would I Lie To You? The Exam is an excellent choice of short play for
a Year 9 school performance.

By the end of this scheme, students will have learned the following skills:
- To use the Drama concept of ‘status’ and apply it to characters in a play
- To explore and understand the ‘Given Circumstances’ of characters in a play and their family
backgrounds in some detail
- To use their imaginations to create new ‘facts’ through hot seating
- To bring characters fully to life, vocally and physically, through ‘off-text’ improvisations
- To create believable characters
- To rehearse initially through ‘on-text’ improvisation of the extract
- To perform an extract, with lines learned, to their peers with a degree of truth.