South Pacific by Darlington Operatic Society @ Darlington Civic

The South Pacific - A vast expanse of emptiness dotted with little island gems

The world was a very different place when Rodgers and Hammerstein created South Pacific.  It was larger, less travelled and as such, more mysterious.  Peoples' opinions and beliefs were more rooted in the culture of their home towns and prejudice sat silently behind every decision.  On one hand, the story is a fun loving musical about an American base on the farthest reaches of Uncle Sam's West Coast frontier - on the other hand it is a veiled attempt at painting a twee fairy tale of good overcoming evil and love conquering even the staunchest of bigotries.

The set-up is typical R and H - introduce a strong, powerful, confident bachelor with a long established routine and an honourable, if somewhat distant, reputation.  Add to that a young woman, pretty, simple yet determined who creates a maelstrom that rips through his ordered life.  Slip into the background some lovable 'rouges' and a presumably innocent side story and, hey presto! you've got a musical.

Darlington Operatic Society again shows why it is the region's greatest amateur production company – the strength in depth that they have throughout their cast & crew must make many professional companies green with envy.  The sets make clever use of the depth of the stage without ever feeling that they are cluttered yet manage to give a great sense of both the expanse of the Pacific coupled with the claustrophobia of a tiny area far from the mainland.

For most who know this show, there are the key standout parts against which any performer will be judged – Nellie Forbush, Emile De Becque, Lt Cable, Liat, Bloody Mary and SeaBee Billis are arguably the main protagonists on whom the audience will be focussed.  Kat Flynn takes on Nellie with a brilliant mid-south accent and a delightful mix of girly charm and womanly knowhow.  Kat is a much accomplished dancer, actor and singer and this role gives her a wonderful canvass on which to display all her talents.  Even when faced with a tumbling coffee pot she never missed a beat and is able to sing beautifully in character with her American vowels ringing loud and true.  It is rare to find Nellie being played by such a genuinely lovely leading lady, often they have a great voice but struggle to portray the vulnerability of a home and love sick woman thousands of miles away from her comfort zone and for this I think that Kat is the best Nellie I have seen.

Playing opposite Kat is Julian Cound, now one of DOS’s elder statesmen (tho only in comparison to the majority of the cast) and, as they say, with age comes experience, wisdom and calm authority.  He glides through the role with complete assuredness and delivers the now much expected virtuoso solos in Some Enchanted Evening and This Nearly was Mine.  There is much made in the story of the age difference between Nellie and Emile so it was expert casting to ensure this element remained very believable in the two leads.

As mentioned earlier, when R & H wrote this tale the world was a different place where the act of racial stereotypes was not viewed with the same indignation as it is today.  The image of a domineering local woman who will do anything to please the temporary islanders whilst trying to make as much money as possible is not necessarily alien to the current world, but their characterisation of Bloody Mary leaves a less than pleasant taste in the mouth –she does, after all, try to sell/marry off her (very) young daughter and thinks nothing of allowing some ‘pre-marital relations’.  To make this role fit with the feeling of the time without becoming a parody of itself is not an easy task – Mary has to deliver both admiration and repulsion and as such Zoe Kent deserves great credit – we’ve seen from previous productions that Zoe can sing & dance with the best of them but it took only a few minutes on stage for the audience to be drawn towards this character like rubberneckers passing a motorway accident.  Mary is not a nice person, even her delivery of Happy Talk, for many an innocent song of childish rhymes, is laced with the undercurrent of ‘selling off’ her daughter and trying to persuade Lt Cable to agree to the marriage; Zoe brings out this dark side of Mary perfectly.

Michael Hirst, as Lt Joe Cable, is, once again, the chisel chinned hunk of the show, and, for this one, the ladies get to see a lot more of Michael than they have ever before – he keeps Joe distant and quite aloof throughout, never relaxed with either the Seabees or the Officers and always giving the impression that he’s lost without a real purpose until his final mission is approved.  Often, Lt Cable is played as an older guy but it works so much better having a young 20-something to give him the confused, frustrated edge borne from being plunged into the war at such a young and tender age.  Michael manages to maintain this reservedness even when playing directly opposite Zoe Birkbeck (as Liat, Mary’s daughter) – he resists the loutish, over-the-top behaviours the other Seabees display when the girls run by and seems almost embarrassed that Mary pushes them together.  I have to say that this is by far the best acting I’ve seen for years – how someone can feign indifference when being ‘offered’ the beautiful Zoe B must surely rival the acting greats.

The Seabees, led by antics if not by rank by Luther Billis, constantly provide the backdrop onto which the two love stories are projected.  Billis, played by Ben Connor, is the clown, the ring leader, the gang master and yet still has the sensibility to recognise when Nellie is obviously feeling fragile & vulnerable.  Ben has grown over the years from an accomplished singer & dancer to a genuinely funny guy with great comic timing, perfect delivery and an amazing style in bikini tops and grass skirts – it is a like a guarantee of laughs when you see his name on the cast list.  The rest of the Seabees is made from the DOS Boys who are becoming renowned as a comic group in their own right; their mix of characters, styles and vocal abilities (including the amazing bass tones of Ethan Hurworth) has given them a collective identity which could easily transfer into their own comedy sketch show.

Of course, the musical score for South Pacific is one of the best known of all of R & H’s and the sweeping orchestral overtures are expertly conducted and directed by Michael Trotter, for whom this is his final DOS production.  Michael has been instrumental (every pun intended) in bringing the successes that DOS have enjoyed over the past 19 years – it has been Michael’s passion and dedication that has enabled DOS to reach ever upwards, to stretch themselves and to dare to dream of putting on bigger and more ambitious shows, for without the music there can be no musical.  Not only has Michael been responsible for assembling and conducting the live orchestras, but he has also scored the vocal parts and taught complex harmonies for leads and choir alike.

It was very evident when looking around the theatre that a South Pacific audience has a clearly defined demographic – its story and setting doesn’t immediately appeal to the younger theatre goer brought up on Sister Act, Hairspray, Footloose or the Full Monty and yet, due in the main to the excellent DOS production, it is easily worth the ticket price regardless of your age.

South Pacific is on show at Darlington Civic Theatre until Saturday 31^st October.

Blood Brothers Page 2 Stage

I think most people know the story of the Johnson twins …… Willy Russell’s timeless tale of the paths twin brothers lives take when separated only to find fate keeping them together.  It was originally written to be performed within a very intimate setting, often in the round, and certainly without elaborate sets, staging and music.  Since its humble beginnings, it has played to hundreds of thousands and gone from a small story about class and superstition to a full blown modern opera regularly attracting the biggest names in musical theatre.  For sure, people enjoy the headliners; Marti Pellow, Maureen Nolan, Niki Evans are the most recent to tour the nations largest and grandest theatres, but it is when the story returns to its origins, played by a young cast and on a pared down stage that the emotion and power are unquestionable.  For this production, the Village Hall in Eaglescliffe was the venue and the brilliant Page2Stage Performing Arts group were the headliners.

Right from the beginning, the characters felt real, as large as life and utterly believable.  There was no time, nor was there any need for time, to grow into the story as from 1st curtain we were in Liverpool in the 60's.  The accents were spot on, never dropping into parody or becoming comical and, with a sparse set, the focus remained solely on the actors; you didn’t need an elaborate backdrop, nor did you need clever and complicated lighting arrangements, the cast transported you into both the humble terrace and the fancy posh house through simple, brilliant story telling - I swear you could almost smell and taste coal fire smoke and street dust. 

For this production the main roles were double cast – often this is to allow more of the cast to lead and enjoy the thrill of being centre stage, but certainly in professional productions, this simply means two different people playing the same part, same lines and same characterisations.  Not for Page2Stage – the double casting for Blood Brothers tapped into each actors’ strengths and, through the brilliance of Director Kelly, the two shows had very distinctly different feelings.  Sadly, two of the leads for Saturday night were unable to perform (due to illness and an untimely coming together of head and wall).  This meant there was some very last minute re-staging required yet, in total professionalism, there wasn’t a dropped line, cue or beat throughout.

Night one, with Matty Dickens as Micky and Jacob Lynch as Eddie had a very young and youthful approach – the story was very much about two childhood friends whose lives take separate paths, one up, the other down, who then meet again with very different outlooks on life.  Recognising that their once inseparable friendship had run its course, Micky shuns all Eddie’s offers of help and eventually resents his once blood brother’s happiness.  Despite Jacob having rehearsed for the 2^nd night casting and not previously played opposite Matty, the two lads had great chemistry – the early childish pranks were just like best friends’ scrapes whilst the later frustrations had a feeling of sad resolve that comes with losing a friend. 

Matty’s portrayal of the young Micky, complete with pretend shooting, hero worship of his elder brother Sammy (wonderfully played both nights by Fraser Belton as the edgy bully who surrounds himself with younger, impressionable kids) and his awkward attempts at courting Linda were perfectly angst forming. He was just a normal lad, happy in his own skin and content to follow the paths of others before him and Matty has that natural, boyish charm which makes him so believable.  As he suffers knock back after knock back he struggles to understand why the world is against him;  Matty avoids the temptation to have Micky over analyse his fate and instead look for the easier targets to blame; Eddie, Linda, his Mum, life itself – and so it is a quite young man who lies dead in the final scene.

Micky on Sunday was played by Kane Smith and boy did Kane take this role into the darkside – his early Micky still had the boyish fun, innocent yet naughty but he was able to really accentuate Micky’s subsequent descent into self, and world, loathing.  In the full story, Micky becomes paranoid, depressed, manic, reliant on prescription medication and self-destructive and whilst the script was abridged to remove some of the more adult scenes Kane kept the intensity and utter despair rarely seen in even the most professional performances.  His refusal to accept Linda’s unconditional love was heart-breaking and gave the final scene the tear-jerking emotion the show is famous for.

Jacob, as Eddie, brilliantly brought the counterpoint to Micky’s street smarts – he was foppish, innocent, aloof, unsure of himself and obviously protected from the real world by his paranoid mother.  Through the progression from 7 (almost 8) year old to university student, company owner and eventually councillor Jacob ensured that Eddie never loses the feeling that this just isn’t him, he’s still Micky’s friend from the old days and can’t understand why his desire to help is always rebuffed.  Jacob is wonderfully adept at responding to his opposite cast; having rehearsed with one Micky he adapted expertly to the other and never lost the connections between the 2 brothers.

I think the character of Linda is the hardest to play in the whole show – Linda goes from tomboy to lovestruck teenager to newly-wed young mother to widow all in the space of just over an hour and it is testament to both Linda's – Jessica Bayley on Saturday and Alicia Percy on Sunday – that you were never in doubt that you were watching the life of this young woman start, form and then be ripped apart.  Just how either Mickey could take so long to get with such attractive Linda's must be down to brilliant acting (and no little resolve) not to mention that Jessica has a mean right hook which Matty’s left cheek can play testimony to. 

The boys’ mother, Mrs Johnson, was played on both nights by Florence MacMahon and, as the glue that holds the whole story together, Florence was amazing.  Mrs J opens the show and in that one scene has to set the backstory, the current predicament, show the desire to get out of her current life and demonstrate that, despite being on hard times, she will do anything to make her children happy. Florence, like many of the cast, has an uncanny ability to visibly age on stage without any change in makeup or costume, her acting moves her from young mum to concerned confidante to destroyed parent and was a powerful and moving performance.

Mrs Lyons, Eddie’s ‘adopted’ mum, was played by Chloe Handley on Saturday and Penny Eastbury on Sunday.  Both girls approached the role differently and this, as mentioned earlier, helped to cement the double casting approach.  Chloe was wonderful as the upper middle class housewife and showed Mrs Lyons’ obsession on portraying the ‘proper’ social etiquette when in reality knowing that it is only her husband’s money on which her standing is built. Chloe had a clever way of having Mrs Lyons talk very calmly and yet being quite animated; a trait that many people who are begging for acceptance use and this gave her version of Mrs L a fragile desperation to keep hold of what she’s got.

Penny’s portrayal of Mrs Lyons was that of a woman very confident in her own standing, her husband was fortunate to have her at home and as such whatever she wants she gets.  She had an edge which said “get in the way and I will hurt you” , a real snobbish view of the world and this extended to her willingness to break up Micky & Linda if it meant retaining her status quo – in fact it is her actions that creates the juxtaposition resulting in the death of both boys – if she hadn’t been so obsessed with Mrs Johnson and Micky being near her (and her previous association with and reliance on the lower classes) she would have allowed nature to take its course without ever needing to get involved.

Of course, anyone who has seen the show will know that there is an undercurrent of superstition and impending doom throughout, ably provided by the narrator.  This character constantly reminds us that this is not a nice, simple tale of family values, that there bargains have been made and debts need to be paid.  The standout performance in both shows was by Ollie Mawson who took this role and totally made it his own.  Ollie belies his tender age to give a truly mesmerising performance, even as he walks slowly onto stage behind the main cast he has all eyes on him as we await his next prophetic soliloquy – mean, menacing and with an evil enjoyment in his work.

The rest of the cast were made up by the ensemble, all of whom were mark & cue perfect and ensured that the story never dropped in pace or intensity. Maya Darley, Harriet Claydon, Luca Howlett and Alfie Lovett gave the richness of ensemble normally associated with a much larger group.  This meant that, whilst the showtime was just over an hour, it never felt that this was Blood Brothers ‘Lite’, nor did the abridgements detract from the story, the emotion or the sense of having just been told a great story.

Page 2 Stage Performing Arts group is a creative youth theatre, not just  a ‘drama club’.  The group is about raising students confidence and self belief through a learning process that encompasses all elements of the arts, with a slightly stronger focus on drama. In the past they have looked at a range of different genres and has incorporated filmmaking, dancing, singing and improvised theatre in performances  as well as scriptwriting. The primary aim of the group is to provide a safe environment which allows the students to grow as individuals and gain confidence in themselves through the arts.  They are always looking for new members – visit their Facebook page for more details - 

https://www.facebook.com/Page2stagePerformingArts/info/?tab=overview