Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

How do you get the car of one’s imagination designed, built and flying, let alone put it on stage where it will ultimately be the star of the show? Well, you need to visit an imaginative Amateur Dramatic Society’s production to see. I’m sorry everyone, however well you perform, to my mind, the Car will always be the star of this particular show. When Ian Fleming wrote his short story in 1961, finally published in 1964, and adapted for the big screen by Roald Dahl in 1967 he didn’t know how well-loved Chitty would become by adults and children alike.

Can a Society successfully build a car, fly it and entertain an audience in a small theatre on a relatively low budget?

This show had all the elements - children, villains, singing, dancing, light, sound and colour, spectacle and theatrical illusion. There were around 30 children, and how can you have children rampaging through the Baron’s Castle in Vulgaria if you don’t have lots of them, they were well disciplined and performed their roles with enthusiasm. This is a show that has child leads, two teams of two - I watched Otto Forkin as Jeremy and Isla Joyce as Jemima, these were two strong, confident, nicely sung and acted performances, they worked well together and with Caractacus and Truly. Stars for the future? (There follows a note from Tessa) I had the pleasure of watching Agnes Garrett and Isabella Nightingale-Mercado play the roles of Jemima and Jennifer. They were both excellent, very strong performers in all aspects of the part.  Lovely singing, great acting and terrific dancing.  They were a pleasure to watch and I am sure that both girls will do well in future productions. A note here about Mia Silva Medd as Eddison the dog, this worked and she played the role well.

The principals in this production were all as good and well-cast as I expected. I enjoyed the antics of Glen Whitmore and Charlotte McAllister as the villainous Boris and Goran, loved the accents, they brought these characters to life and had great fun hiding in bushes and following the Potts Family. A lovely performed comic scene with their duet ‘Act English’.

How could one not fail to enjoy the performance of Darren Rawnsley and Cassie Pattison as Baron and Baroness Bombhurst, two great roles, performed with style. Cassie brings out the best with her singing and acting and the singing of her fellow principals, she must be a hard task master, both she and Darren were having a ball in both ‘Chu-Chi Face’ and ‘Bombi Samba’, two great performers, fun to watch, good energy, acting and singing all clearly evident, dancing nicely together with knowing looks to the audience.

Having mentioned the above I do feel that top marks for performance must go to Andrew Cleaver as Caractacus Potts, closely followed by Charlotte Burgess as Truly Scrumptious. For me this was the best performance that I have seen Andrew give, his energy, acting, dialogue, singing and not to mention his dancing was very good. He appeared to have a good rapport with the children and also Truly. Well done particularly for ‘Hushaby Mountain’ and ‘Doll on a Music Box’ and the dancing in ‘Me Ol’ Bamboo’. What a lovely voice Charlotte has, she was a good match for Andrew and performed her role with style giving a great rendition of ‘Lovely Lonely Man’, I particularly liked her performance of ‘Doll on a Music Box’, great movement and style, again a good rapport with the children and she always looked the part of a wealthy young lady, moving elegantly and smoothly around the stage.

Further roles were filled by Andrew Downing as Granpa, a great portrayal reminding me of Lionel Jefferies, nicely played and a nicely sung ‘Them Three’. William Darbishire was a suitable Lord Scrumptious coming into his own as Cockney Bob singing ‘Me Ol’ Bamboo’. Abbirose Adey as the Toymaker brought a touch of obsequiousness to the role in the presence of the Baron giving a good performance and of course Nicola Sandall as the Childcatcher giving a nicely voiced and danced performance, reminiscent of Sir Robert Helpmann’s original.

The company as a whole were energetic throughout, nicely spaced and choreographed and the singing was generally very good, staging was good, no problems with sound, lighting design was generally good although this made the projections at times appear faint and indistinct. They did however give a good background when the car was ‘floating’ at se (loved the beach balls and flamingos) and ‘flying’. Staging was generally quite straightforward, with few props apart from larger set pieces, only two comments really, it would have been nice if Potts and Truly had been brought onto stage already on blocks for ‘Doll on a Music Box’ and a pre-recorded Chitty Chitty Bang Bang sound would have been nice to hear.

Back to my original question, can you build a car that flies and entertains an audience on a budget. Yes, you can, a well-built car, the registration plate GEN 11, a bit of stage magic, smoke, backcloth projection, and a cleverly choreographed and lit finale to Act 1 and the answer is yes, yes, yes.

My final word, Congratulations to Andrew cleaver for building your star of the show, Chitty.

     

 

 

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