Christmas Concert

It is always a delight to join the cast and production team at Side-by-Side Theatre Company especially when they are performing at their own wonderful venue, The Sidespace at St John’s.

The occasion was made even more special by the attendance of Christine Hunter Hughes as NODA National President who was able to have a photograph taken with the cast for their Facebook group.

Everyone was dressed in a Christmas jumper which with a decorated venue made the whole evening very Christmassy. I was very impressed to see so many NODA long service awards pinned to jumpers. These showed the commitment to the NODA family by Sue and all at Side by Side.

The evening consisted of songs sung, the playing of musical instruments and readings / poetry. The combination and flow of these pieces was well considered.

Claire and James opened the show with a lovely rendition of ‘When Christmas Comes to Town’. This was a great opening.

Later in the evening we heard the wonderful voice of James again when we were treated to ‘Do You Hear What I Hear’ (joined by the whole group) and ‘Somewhere In My Memory’ from Home Alone. These were both simply brilliant and a delight.

I also enjoyed ‘When Santa Got Stuck Up the Chimney’ sung by Chris.

Susie was great playing her recorder with ‘Away In A Manger’ and ‘Hark The Herald Angels’ sing. I really enjoyed the group playing handbells and giving us ‘Stille, Stille, Stille’ and ‘Hark The Herald Angels’, these were played under the baton of Derek. We also heard ‘Do You Want to Build a Snowman’ this time played on a cornet by Ben. Again this was great.

The third string to the evening came in a range of poems and readings by many members of the group. I particularly liked ‘A Childs View of Christmas’.

On this performance a couple of minor technical problems were evident. These were however addressed and the show carried on without delay. Congratulations for enacting ‘plan B’. The cast took these slight changes totally in their stride showing true professionalism and as the saying goes ‘The Show Must Go On’.

Sue and all at Side by Side need to once again be congratulated for not looking at people’s disabilities but more at individual’s abilities and bringing the very best of these out.

As always, a massive Well Done and see you in June for the next performance.

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