A Pure Imagination

AUDLEY THEATRE

Presents

PURE IMAGINATION

Audley Theatre’s delighted to announce that their Youth contingent has doubled in size since their January Pantomime Mother Goose. This is their first Youth production since Covid. Going for as much participation and indeed ownership in what to perform, ideas were pooled from the young cast as to what they wanted to include and achieve. That was the easy part, then came the difficult part of incorporating the various ideas into a show format, which is where Pure Imagination was born.

The Youth group have worked extremely hard with the script, costume, props and scenery changes to create a show that is all their own.

What a welcome return they delivered with A Pure Imagination. The show started with a selection from Willy Wonker segue nicely into ‘The Candy Man’, full company song and dance number with a big picture ‘jazz hands’ finish.

The Roald Dahl stories continue with Revolting Rhyme’s a reimagining of children’s fairy stories, Little Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears with a dark Dahlesque twist, Miss Locks getting her comeuppance as she sleeps in baby bears bed, with said bear exacting direct justice by reclaiming his porridge.

Continuing this theme with a selection of excerpts from Matilda, ‘When I Grow Up’, some very well thought out clever scene changes transforming the stage into a pre search engine Font of all Knowledge, better known as a library.

Next author up is Dr Suess with The Lorax, the ultra-powerful statement was etched for all to see, ‘Unless someone like you cares a whole lot, nothing is going to get better – It’s Not!’ Into the song ‘Let it Grow’, to emphasise this the cast moved into the aisles and distributed seed packets, with a great visual in silhouette of trees growing across the back of the stage. 

Henry VIII wives next, with a cool rendition of ‘We’re Six’ from the musical Six. This scene leads into two solo songs ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ and ‘Catch A Falling Star’.

So diverse yet a wonderfully interwoven plot we return to the library for a brief precis of The Importance of Being Ernest, we also have Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, with a thought provoking quote from the author who got a whole generation reading again J.K. Rowling – ‘The Stories That We Love Live Within Us Forever’.

The perfect finishing number to encompass the whistlestop tour of stories old and stories less old, is of course Giorgio Moroder’s ‘Never Ending Story’.

The energy and enthusiasm from the cast oozed from the stage as they revelled performing in their various personas and characters, well done one and all.

The positive messages, the awareness raising of essential issues and reinforcement of the world at your fingertips in the form of a book in this show is pure gold. Personally, I feel that this show should be toured around schools, as educational enrichment.

Books and the world of imagination they drive were a key element in my childhood, mainly thanks to my dad, whose enthusiasm and imagination fired my own, so I know just how important this message could be to a child. We really enjoyed A Pure Imagination.

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