AMATEUR THEATRE REVIEW: The Black And White Mikado - NWTAC Theatre, Moston, Manchester.

North Manchester Amateur Operatic And Dramatic Society (NMAODS), has been in existence a long time, and was for many years, the premier amateur theatre company in the whole area. Sadly, those glory days of the society are behind them at the moment, but that doesn't mean that they don't have the potential to come back in a blaze of glory. Their story starts in 1919, and their first ever production was performed at nearby Simpson Memorial Hall, and was indeed, The Mikado. A certain unwelcome and annoying virus has spoiled play for a while now, but the society wanted to celebrate their centenary with another production of this, one of Gilbert and Sullivan's more famous operettas.

The idea behind 'black and white' in the title comes from ENO's 2015 seminal production of the work, in which they radically transposed the setting from Japan to a plush art-deco black and white 1920s. Since then, it has become very popular for companies to 'follow suit' and forgo the Japanese costuming etc. And so, for this production we find ourselves in the reception area of the Eastbourne Titi-Pu Savoy circa 1920. 

The stage at their chosen venue, NWTAC Theatre in Moston, is not ideal for a full scale musical, and how they managed to fit all the cast, chorus and dancers on the stage at once is small wonder in itself. However, there certainly was no room for a band as well, and so they contented themselves with piano accompaniment, and for such a theatre and style of presentation, it worked surprisingly well.

If I am honest then the show took a little while to find its stride this evening. It was opening night, and a few nerves and hiccups were evidenced, but once the company relaxed and started to enjoy themselves, the show became far more enjoyable. All the cast were obviously revelling in their roles and this came through, even to us on the second-from-back row. However, over and above, I should really like to single out Seb Lassandro for performing the role of Ko-Ko (The Lord High Executioner) - sounding and acting every bit like John Reed (famous patter-song singer of the D'Oyly Carte!). I also should perhaps make a special mention to the interpretation - and voice - of Jack Brierley (The Mikado). 

The show featured some fantastic, and very authentic-looking, black and white period costumes. The set was all tastefully decorated in black and white, and the rear of the stage had a large screen upon which information, pictures etc were placed to help us with the story and fill in the set detail which could not be done for obvious stage size reasons. I loved the using of this screen and it conveying plot a-la silent film era, a lovely idea. Sadly however, sometimes it was unreadable due to cast standing in front. 

Director, Paul Allcock, had made good use of stage space, and injected much humour into the script, even updating it to make reference of irritants contemporaneous; especially (as is indeed tradition) the Lord High Executiner's list!

It has been an extremely long time since I last saw a show by NMAODS. It certainly won't take me as long before my next visit! Congratulations to all!

Reviewer - Alastair Zyggu
on - 8.12.21