Sunday 17 July 2022

AMATEUR THEATRE REVIEW: Matilda Jr. - Interplay Theatre, Leeds



Born2Perform are a local theatre school based in Armley, Leeds, who, alongside the Interplay Theatre, have grown from a small class of 5, to nearly 30 kids ranging from ages 5 and up, all from the local community.

The Interplay Theatre are an arts organisation celebrating 50 years engaging people nationally using the arts. Working across film, music and theatre, engaging thousands of people each year in high quality arts experiences, developing them as individuals and inspiring them to achieve their full potential. Their inspiration comes from a belief that every young person has a story to tell and they continue to empower them and give them the tools to tell their stories.

More important work that they do involves reaching out to young people with profound multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) through touring theatre productions, to give them new and transformative experiences in theatre and education. They also put on Sensory Theatre productions at their theatre in Armley.

Onto tonight’s performance, by the Born2Perfom stage school, who took on the mighty challenge that is Tim Minchin’s adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic, Matilda. This was the shortened schools' version, Matilda Jr. which somewhat skims the surface of the show, but you still very much get the jist of what is going on and the main plot lines are all covered. 

Matilda JR opens with enthusiastic school children (and their equally enthusiastic parents) singing their own praises…except Matilda (Evie). According to her parents, she is nothing but a nuisance. At Matilda's home, her father, Mr. Wormwood (Daniel), reveals his scheme to sell old automobiles as brand-new luxury cars to Russian businessmen. Matilda then visits a library to pick up some books and tells the librarian, (Annie-May), the first part of the acrobat and escapologist's woeful endeavours.

Following that, we have the first day at school and our first major obstacle, Tim Minchin’s brilliantly wordy ‘School Song’. The cast did a great job fighting their way through this tough passage in the libretto, along side that, holding up their alphabet dice as each letter was emphasised in the lyrics. We meet the sweet Miss Honey, (Maisy). The terrifying unibrowed Headmistress, Miss Trunchbull (Lola), and the rest of Matilda’s class. The rest of the story goes on as you would expect, we see Bruce Bogtrotter (Aibhlinn), scoff an enormous cake, Mrs Wormwood (Mia), and Rodolpho (Kaydee), practicing for a dance competition, although I’m not sure that is mentioned in this version of the script, so they are just dancing in the family home. Matilda finishes telling the tale to the librarian, and then Matilda eventually takes down Trunchbull.

There was a lot going on in this performance, as you can probably tell, and it was so pleasing to see so many young people having the time of their lives on stage, dancing, singing their hearts out, mostly remembering their lines, and telling us this story. From a group compiled of children who mostly have never performed on stage before, the staff at Born2Perform stage school have every right to be hugely proud of the cast’s efforts tonight. And I hope when the rest of the performances happen, they are equally as good.

There were some minor slip ups through the show, but nothing that detracted from the performance too much, and there was an amount of charming moments, such as Michael Wormwood, (Isaac), wondering around the stage looking for his portable television, then settling down, just as the scene ends, and Evie, who played, Matilda mouthing the whole script throughout the show. These moments just made the performance very sweet to watch, and the whole evening was a lot of fun. Some of these children are very funny, and I hope they all carry on with this journey in theatre, as they could go on to do wonderful things.

From a production point of view, there was a very minimal amount of set, mostly just a few props which came on and off between scenes such as school tables and a sofa, (not forgetting Isaac’s portable TV!!) and the scenery was all projected onto the wall. There was a minimal amount of lighting, and the sound was all from the MTI provided backing tracks, which at times was a smidge too loud and drowned out the individual solos from the cast.

It was an enjoyable evening, and I really hope you have a great show run, and I wish Born2Perform Stage School all the best.

Reviewer - Simon Oliver 
on - 15.7.22

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