Appreciation of the production, which appeared
in the Village Journal, February, 2011
Julie Kingcott, the director of this season's New Year
combined production for Wrington Youth Drama and
Wrington Drama club, has achieved the seemingly
impossible task of deploying to good effect a large number of
young, in some cases very young, actors. Full houses at
every performance were enthralled.
Equal mention must be made in this respect of Laura
Leggett, the choreographer, who ensured there was some
highly polished dancing - the sensuous sirens springing
alliteratively to mind.
However, it wasn't all chorus work. Martha Graham as
Wendy showed herself straight off to be a star in the making.
Her delightful voice, notably her singing with the lost boys
pleading with her to become their mother, was touchingly
memorable, doing justice to Rachel Walker's musical
composition. Similarly successful was her duet with Tim
Walsh (Peter), bringing out the wistful tenderness of a first
love.
Rachel’s piano playing also supplied a musical analogy to
the twinkling lights between scenes, thus maintaining the
overall sense of whimsy during the necessary stage work, which was elegantly achieved largely thanks to
inspired set design. This atmosphere was also assisted by the discreet level of lighting during most of the
show - although it meant the quality of the still photographs taken for the website from the video shot on
Thursday evening were not as clear as usual.
Nevertheless, this is no drawback for the resulting DVD, where what ultimately counts is the overall impact
of music, lighting, choreography, combined with strong solo performances by the likes of Alan Milne (Hook),
Jim Swords (Smee), and secure ensemble work (special mention for the pirates). Finally, it should be noted
that the whole cast only just escaped being upstaged by Barnaby (Nana), an actor very much in the Dulux
tradition.
RT
www.wrington.net