Charlie and The Chocolate Factory

Everyone knows the well loved story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory  from the book by Roald Dahl and this production certainly brought all those characters to life, to the delight of their supportive audience.   Company of Four decided to take a gamble with this show. It was very expensive to produce not only with the Royalties but also with the incredible set and this certainly paid off with virtually full houses for every performance.  Firstly, I will mention the set with a  very large LED screen onto which  all the background images were displayed. This was perfect to create the magical scenes with chocolate mountains and candy canes etc. There were also some extremely large pieces of set including an incredible Glass Elevator that rose up to the full height of the stage and the chocolate making machine to name a couple.  These large items were moved by the stage hands whilst the action continued around them, thus ensuring the pace was upheld. The lighting was also very effective in adding that extra magic.

It had a large cast with 18 named characters.  Stephen Watt as Willy Wonka was brilliant in the leading role as he sang, danced and acted his role perfectly.  The role of Charlie Bucket was split on alternative performances.  We saw the 14 year old Josh Walters who was extremely confident in the role. A confidence which he said he had gained from taking part in Farlingaye  High School production of Big Fish, which I had seen earlier in the year. He was on stage for most of the performance and was word perfect  with no hesitation in his acting or singing. Very well done, he can feel justly proud of his performance.  The other Charlie was played by Cason Kirkpatrick who was only 9 years old. Unfortunately I did not see him, but was told that he also gave an excellent performance.  

Charlie’s mother was played by Jo Rayner, a very warm and loving character delivering a moving performance of ‘If Your Father Were Here’.  Charlie’s four grandparents were comically all in a very large bed in their tumbledown shack.  Jacky Slater was Grandma Georgina, Neville Woolnough as Grandpa George and Jane Hines as Grandma Josephine.  Allan Rogers was Grandpa Joe who had the largest of these 4 roles. He comically rose from his bed after 45 years and was determined to escort Charlie into the Chocolate Factory. There was a good affinity between these two characters. Mention must also go to the characters who had won the golden tickets, 4 young people accompanied by their parents. They all excelled in their very different comic charactisation, great little cameo roles, with the 4 youngsters who all come to a rather ‘sticky’ end in the Chocolate factory. Some imaginative ideas from the props department!

The ensemble were kept busy with innovative choreography, including some balletic numbers.  These were all performed well, with plenty  of energy and unrelenting enthusiasm and all thoroughly enjoying being on stage. There was a live orchestra which added to our enjoyment under the baton of Olly Wood who had also inspired both the principles and ensemble delivering a plethora of confident songs and strong harmonies including the memorable ‘The Candy Man’ and ‘Pure Imagination’. The costumes all looked great and for one of the numbers all the ensemble were dressed in colourful dungarees and  matching wigs, very effective in it’s simplicity.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable show under the brilliant direction of Sarah and all her cast and crew. Well done to all involved, you certainly captured that magic! Thank you also for your warm welcome Sarah and Neil, it was good to meet you both.

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