AMAZONS

I have said many times that it is a pleasure to attend a youth performance where the youngsters on stage are enjoying themselves, well when I went to see Keighley’s Youth Theatre production of Amazons there was no doubt they certainly did enjoy themselves as did the entire audience.

This is a very inclusive society where the shows are written and co-written by the youngsters who perform plus they are involved in the direction and choreography of the productions too.

Once again this was a totally “in-house” production and there were some cracking performances from all those involved, in this story, which is loosely based on the Disney film Mulan, the country is governed by a group of Amazons especially the elders who at their meetings would decide the fate of any man who dared to question them.

As I mentioned above there were some really good performances and in the case of October Fox-Grange as Octava, Maisy Harness as Sorrell, Sophie Pedlar as Cruelle and Lauren Southgate as Skylar they were perfect, their diction was superb and although this was set in the round without any mics or sound system every single word could be heard. This was also true of the other characters on stage who delivered every line with very clear diction.

There were also some great performances by the lads in this piece, William Bishop as Webber and The King’s Brother and Michael Corcoran as Maxim, later to become Maxima were both excellent. It is not an easy thing for a 15 year old lad to appear on stage dressed as a girl in full make up and wig but Michael pulled this off brilliantly when he changed into Maxima much to the delight of the audience especially when he was joined by the girls to sing I Feel Pretty from West Side Story, he was excellent and almost brought the house down.

There was more good singing from the girls, the boys and by the entire company when they sang numbers such as It’s All About the Base, changed to All About the Age, I Can hear the Bells from Hairspray and a rousing finale when they all sang Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from Spamalot, everybody joined in singing and swaying along to them.

This was my first visit to KYDZ and I hope it will not be the last, plus it was a great honour to be able to present long service awards to 2 of the young girls in the company.

Many congratulations the entire company especially the production team headed by David Knight, I am sure KYDZ will go from strength to strength. 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.