AMATEUR THEATRE REVIEW: Matilda Jr. - St Joseph's High School, Horwich, Bolton.

The popularity of 'Matilda' seems to be unwavering. From a story by Roald Dahl, to a full-scale West End show with music by Tim Minchin, it is now available as a one-hour schools' / junior version - something I didn't know until this evening, and have never seen this shorter edited version before. However, Curtain Up Theatre Productions, headed by the indefatigable Dawn Parker, have done it and themselves proud. 

One thing was absolutely certain right from the off, the performers in this evening's show were enjoying every single second of it. Their enjoyment and excitement was palpable, and reflected back from us to them in return. 

A lot of thought, time, and energy had been expended in order to bring this show to fruition, but this paid dividend. A sensible, unfussy lighting design, good sound quality (a couple of the mics gave a bit of feedback at times, but that's understandable and forgivable), and great costumes all helped to give context and ameliorate the production. The set design however was sadly not optimal. Having stagehands enter between every scene and alter the configuration or bring extra set pieces onto the stage was rather clumsy and pedestrian, and it also slowed the show down quite considerably too. Perhaps finding a simple, single, composite set which could utilise different stage areas for different scenes, and have the younger children move a couple of things around themselves as part of the show if that was deemed necessary, would have worked much better, and the pace would not have been lost between each scene then. I would also have preferred to have seen water in the jug; the "drinking" mime would have worked better with real liquid. 

However, none of that diminished the talent and performances of the young cast. Two different age groups had cleverly been mixed, and this worked very well indeed. Older teenagers took the roles of the adults, and in some cases doubling as ensemble chorus; whilst the children in the show were played by - naturally - children! No-one was mis-cast, and all had a wonderful grasp of their character, the part their character plays within the whole, and all worked together excellently. None of them ever lost their sense of fun or storytelling either, which was admirable. I've seen professional adult actors fail at that particular hurdle!

Emily Taylor was our protagonist, Matilda, and she played this role with gusto. Her matter-of-fact righteousness never becoming twee or self-important, and her moment hugging Miss Honey felt very real indeed. A great voice and a very confident young actress. 

Taylor was supported by many other talented and proficient youths and youngsters. Her bevvy of schoolfriends included eight who had a little more to do than sing and dance. These were Maya Marimbe (Bruce) - whose innate sense of comedy timing was a real pleasure to watch, with some lovely facial expressions to boot; Mya Collings (Lavender), who made me smile at her line "Remember she's MY best friend!"; and Kent Hayward (Eric), Matthew Chen (Nigel), Isobel Murray (Amanda), Lily Doyle (Hortensia), Pipps Stokes (Alice), and Gerda Martynova (Tommy), all adding their own particular characteristics to their roles with ease.

Lucas Haywood and Eve Blackmore played Matilda's parents, Mr and Mrs Wormwood. Their cod London accents, and underhand dodgy dealings and liaisons handled well and comedically. And Sam Banton's Rudolpho was hilarious! Whilst Matilda's myopic younger brother, Michael (Aaliyah Watson), was quite rightly "backwards". Simi Adebanjo portrayed a very timid but sincere Miss Honey, whilst her opposite and nemesis, Miss Trunchbull was played with powerful authority and calculated malevolence by Sade Adebanjo. Both had an easy stage presence and lovely singing voices (Sade's proved to be extremely powerful), but I felt that Simi could have been a little louder at times, as her voice tended to fall off towards the end of each sentence; whilst Sade needed a little pace in her performance, there was a tendency to "milk" each pause for all it was worth and more. 

The singing and dancing (Amy Wilson - music, Jo Swaby - choroegraphy), was of a high standard and enjoyable. The dances were imaginative, used the space well, and were all appropriate for the age and ability of the performers. Solo singing was excellent, it was just in the children's choruses that a little more attention to enunciation would have been the cherry on the top of the cake. Many of the faster melodies are very wordy, and sometimes the words were lost in the melee. The talented and enthusiastic youngsters revelling in every moment of their stage-time.

A hugely enjoyable, high energy, no-punches-pulled, fun show of which everyone involved should be rightly proud. 

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 26.3.22