Euro Smash

This is the 19th Barton Players Summer School, which is quite remarkable and certainly unique for District 2, if not NODA East. For a small village hall society, it is certainly something of a shining example in the world of Amateur Dramatics, and I have missed their last two years due to a clash of events, so was very much looking forward to this one.

The driving force behind this annual event and director of this show was the remarkable Keith Badham, who never ceases to amaze with the ideas he comes up with. Clearly such talent runs in the family and this year’s script was written by daughter Chloe, with some additional material by Keith himself. Basically, the plot centred around a conspiracy to stop the UK winning Eurovision and the police investigation to uncover this dastardly plan. So we had lots of eaves dropping policemen trying to hear what each country’s team and the Euro Council were planning. We had a highly amusing sample of the entries themselves with numbers from the likes of France, Sweden, Finland, The UK and, stretching European geography a tad, Australia!

The set was a simply black back cloth with multi-coloured spangly symbols of musical note and other various shapes, to represent Eurovision. To one side was a whiteboard with a map of Europe drawn on it supposedly showing the extent of the conspiracy against the UK’s Euro entry! Hmm? Art imitating real life..?

Under the watchful eye of Technical Manager Keith Bowie. lighting this year was handed over to newcomer, Rebecca Louise Smith who did a remarkable job, but who immediately came across the age-old problem of wishing the actors would actually stand where they were told to! Nothing changes with the generations! Sound was by Rachael Bowie, which from an audience point of view went without a hitch. Clever playing of past Euro winning entries whilst we waited for the show to start.

Costumes by Derryanne Blunt and Christine Ayres were fun with amongst many varied outfits, turquoise capes with red edging for the boys in blue and little princess costumes for the three young announcers and stunning costumes for the singers of each country’s entry.

Bearing in mind this was a huge cast of around 30, varying in ages from early primary to late secondary school, which just goes to show the popularity of this Summer School, I shan’t be critiquing each individual performance, but emphasis that each played their part to the full. The full length two act show is cast and rehearsed in one week flat, even NODA’s own Summer School don’t attempt that, so I can’t only image the hard work needed by both the instructors and the cast to bring it off, But, bring it off they did. There were obvious nerves showing and quite a few prompts, and no doubt the script went out of the window in one or two places, but all this was good fun. Most importantly what I saw was a very together bunch of youngsters thoroughly enjoying themselves, taking direction and obviously learning a lot from both their instructors and each other.

Among the silly but highly amusing antics we had lots of Microsoft jokes and some great renditions of various Eurovision entries/ group numbers’ such as, Shut Up and Dance With Me, Patience and Pompeii amongst many.

This is grass roots theatre at its best; on show was a large range of talent, some of which I have no doubt are stars of the future, others will just savour the memory of a great week in their lives where they  came together with others wanting to try their hand at theatre craft, made some new friends, and had the confidence to appear on stage and perform a show which captivated the audience.  When it went wrong, and sometimes it did, they took their prompts and carried on like true professionals, and we all loved it. Long live Barton Players Summer School, a unique event basically founded around the Badham and Bowie families. I just wish they’d use a bigger font in the programme!!  

So congratulations to (love some of these character’s names!) :

Harrison Hunt – Police Chief Keith Heath,
Chloe Randal - Oscar Worthy (Suspect),
Tallulah Smith - PC Jack,
Leo Williamson – PC Jock, Darren Fosters (Dazza),
Ashley Riley - PC Gonemad, Sharon Operahouse (Shazza),
Charlie Simmons – PC Geezerbloke,
Maddie Laurie – PC Plank, Gary Harbourbridge (Gazza),
Alice Southern – PC Gannet,
Joel Platt - Councilor Creep,
Edward Thompson Hoare - Alderman Overboard,
Locksley Soley – Councillor In,
Artie Thompson Nash – Councillor Out,
Albie Anderson – Councillor Shakeitallabout,
Aurora Soley - Councillor Hokey Cokey,
Caitlin Wustrau – Councillor Turnabout,
Jaxon Hottinger – Councillor Whatsitallabout,
 Harrison Hunt - Hanz In the air (Choreographer),
Violet Knight – Lika Youjustdontcare (assistant to the Choreographer),
Sophie Linstow – Lee Nonme (HQ Floor Manager),
Daisy Cassels - Sweden (Lena) & Australia (Sheila Bilabong),
Lauren Platt – Aurora,
Layla Nash – Yara,
Olivia Horwood – Finland (Kaarina),
Christian Farr – Wolfric, Fillipe Flop,
Christopher Paxton – Frederic, Pierre Bag,
Hallie Dimock (Mimi Monogue), Paige Gibson (Bjorn Bling) and Poppy Widdowfield (Lulu La Mere) – Eurovision Hosts,
Alice Southern – Bruce Pouchdweller (Brewster),
Charlie Simmons- Barry Boomerang,
Evie Reeson – Karen Matilda (Kazza),
Finn Thompson Hoare – Jacques Anory

 

 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.