'The Worst Witch' is a series of books aimed at the tweenie market by Jill Murphy. They lie somewhere between Roald Dahl's 'The Witches' and J K Rowling's Harry Potter series, since there are parallels of both in her writing. They were subsequently made into both a film and a TV series, and now they have been adapted into a stage play by Emma Reeves, with original songs by Luke Potter.
Kathleen Valentine is no stranger to either acting or directing, and her directing of this production seemed to hit home amongst its target audience. I have to confess to having only a scant knowledge of the original source material, and so was relying much more on this as an original presentation and watching the reaction from those who knew the characters well - the children. The set was minimalist, consisting of a large pile of old chairs forming a wall / hill at the rear with lights etc contained within, whilst other set items were brought in and out by SM as required. It lacked atmosphere and lacked place, and didn't truly work in my opinion. In fact, there was something missing from this show, and I am still trying to put my finger on exactly what it was: perhaps a culmination of many smaller things, but despite the small cast working well together there was no real sense of a true ensemble, and there was a lack of energy throughout (perhaps due to the weather?), and yet, the cast were completely focussed and their characters clear, but the whole was a little fuzzy around the edges. There was pace in the production, and yet it lacked pace and urgency as a whole. Perhaps the cast was too small for a "musical", and especially when two of the characters - two of the teaching staff - were not necessary to the narrative drive of the production in any way this did not help, so perhaps the adaptation was not the best either. The songs were unmemorable and the choreography very simplistic and repetitive, and Valentine failed to create any real jeopardy and adventure into the production, and the malevolence became rather pantomimic rather than scary. And some of the special effects needed a little more practice to make them work effectively. However, all of this comes from my adult perspective watching a new-to-me production for the first time.
Altrincham Garrick cannily put this production on during a school holiday time to entice families with young children along to be entertained. It was a hot and sunny Saturday afternoon when I saw the production, and so pulling in punters suddenly became a lot harder! However, judging by the response from the youngsters in the audience, and their comments afterwards, they really enjoyed the show, and since this show was aimed at them in the first place, they must be our ultimate arbiters on the show's success, and by and large, on that score, it was mission accomplished. Certainly the costuming and the characterisations were as near to the source / film / TV series as possible, and so the youngsters found these familiar characters on stage, even chatting to them in the auditorium prior to the start of the show - a nice touch.
Heading this cast of nine females was the very proficient and lovely actress, Helen Horridge in the dual role of twins Ada and Agatha Cackle. Obviously very much at home on stage she was very easy to watch and her changing of character was superbly measured. Her Deputy Head, Hecate Hardbroom, was also very accomplished, and I enjoyed the on-stage chemistry between these two. Lindsey Barker's characterisation of her was lovely to watch. As the protagonist schoolgirl Mildred Hubble, Megan Sorrel impressed with her Garrick debut and hope we will get to see more of her in the future, as again, she impressed with her stagecraft. The entire school of young witches-in-training completed with Georgina Brame's bubbly Enid Nightshade, Sasha Corillo's arrogant, haughty, and egocentric Ethel Hallow, and Isabel Stuart-Cole as Ethel's sidekick Drusilla Paddock. However, full credit is due to Eilidh Pollard, again no stranger to the Garrick stage, for stepping in at the last minute to play the role of Maud Spellbody. Performing with the book in hand - although she hardly ever referenced it - her characterisation was excellent and enjoyable.
This afternoon was only the show's second performance and so hopefully, given a little time to bed-in, it will work a little more deftly and find its true sparkle, which I am sure is there somewhere, it certainly has the potential. It runs at the Garrick until April 17th.
Reviewer - Alastair Zyggu
on - 5.4.25
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