Act Reviews 2024 / 2025 Season

were superbly strong and suited to his character, he had great posture, he maintained his accent and the audience were absorbed by his emotion and mental state. When challenged by Curly, Davison became aggressive, Curly returned the emotions and the scene resulted in shots being fired. The scene was well controlled under the direction of Lindsay Lowe. As soon as the gun was fired, a sombre atmosphere filled the room where Aunt Eller and Ali Hakim intruding to break the tension. Act One ended as a dream sequence, inside Laurey’s mind as she slept. It was well hazed with effective lighting gobos used. The sequence featured a great ballet by Victoria Lewis and the Dance Team, Lewis is obviously a trained dancer and executed this well under the choreography of Jayde Rylance. The sequence continued to witness a fight scene between Curly and Jud, where you could clearly see what Jud could be capable of, or at least what Laurey thought he was capable of in her mind. The production was under the Musical Direction of Jon Gibson. Some of the numbers had great vocals and harmonies, but particular attention should be paid to members in the ensemble who lack ability or do not know the lyrics as unfortunately they stood out. With such a large ensemble, there is a consideration for numbers and scenes to be split. Throughout Act One, the band was effective, yet soft, but as you would anticipate with a lack of microphones. The sound had well sourced sound effects; however, the birds and crickets cheeping were played for a lot of the scenes and rather loudly where it became more of an annoyance when struggling to hear the dialogue from the cast. The lighting was operated by Mark Beaumont. There was a good warm white flood downstage but there was a lack of lighting upstage, possibly due to the very limited space of the rig. The lighting fades and transitions were operated well with good timing. However, there was one moving head which was not pre-positioned for a lot of the scenes and swung round frequently at the start of the cue through the audience to get to its position, but other than this rogue lamp, the lighting was fitting to the production and effective. My favourite scene was the auction where Aunt Eller sold off hampers and lunch with those who made the hampers in aid of the school. Tension grew between Jud and Curly who wanted to bid for Laurey’s hamper – a metaphor for Laurey herself. Curly sold off his possessions and there was tension building round the village, a scene which was controlled well by Jo Burton

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