Aladdin Jnr & The Jungle Book

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Downfield’s new musical youth bounded on to the stage in an abundance of lively enjoyment, energy, and enthusiasm to present to their audience two very popular Disney stage shows (abridged) both of which were popular with young and old alike. We were whisked off to the world of green foliage in the jungle to meet the well known Jungle Book characters. Jungle boy, Mowgli, was played with great boyish charm by Fraser Paterson, who was guided by a bossy Bagheera, fantastically played by Tilly McLardy with fine, clear diction. Hannah Shepherd made a loveable Baloo the Bear who gave us a wonderful Bare Necessities musical number. Then there was the menacing Shere Khan, full of evil intent, brought to life by Ava Divers, and the hip-hop King Louie, dancing around with great delight. We must not forget Kaa, the slithering Snake (Elin Laing), plus the Coils (Ava Curr, Ellie Mather, Darci Reid, Hali Sage, Airlie Weir), and also, Colonel Hathi (Archie Turnbull) with his herd of marching elephants! This very young company – all playing a great variety of animals - put their hearts and enthusiasm into their performance and there was a wonderful childish innocence about it all which was just lovely. Then we moved on to the more adult world of Aladdin, performed by the senior members. This was A Whole New World of difference as we found ourselves in the land of Arabian nights. The duo of Aladdin (Carys Morgan) and Princess Jasmine (Erin Paterson) were well matched and both had great voices to put their famous duet over in fine style. Evil came in the form of Jafar (Ceilidh McFadyen) and Rhio Deuchars as a strutting Iago. The magical Genie was perfectly played by Niamh Barlow, and one could only wonder in awe at the perfect athleticism of Phoebe Meldrum as the Magic Carpet. Also playing their parts well were Joshua McCallum (Sultan) and Kaci Nicholson (Razoul). The entire evening was a joy to watch and the entire company was absolutely fab-u-lous!

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