Evita

Following the loss of two members earlier this year, one of them a former Chairman and a holder of a 50 year medal, it cannot have been easy to rehearse and then perform a show which begins and ends with a funeral.  But any emotions were quickly set aside as the cast gave us a fine performance of this difficult show.

It does, of course, tell the story of Eva Duarte, later Peron, as she progresses from obscurity to become the wife of the President of Argentina. It represents Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s departure from previous Biblical tales and introduces a storyteller, Che, whose task is to cast doubts on Eva’s claims to be saviour or saint.  

The show is completely sung through, a rock opera of sorts, with some difficult intervals, rhythms and entries for the principals.  Here, however, Laura Jackson as Eva and Chris Mooney as Che had no problems in handling their respective roles, substantial though they both are.  Three of the songs featured in the charts of their time making them familiar and thus eagerly anticipated by many in the audience but they would not be disappointed by these performances.  Robin Withey proved an excellent choice as Peron, also coping well with some difficult music.  There is a small but important part for a young lady, described only as “Peron’s mistress” and, so impressive were their auditions that two members could not be separated and agreed to share the part.  Alannah Creed Jones on the opening night gave a fine rendition of “Another suitcase”.  I also enjoyed Khal Shajahan’s performance as Eva’s first love, Magaldi, and his song (“On this night of 1000 stars”) gave us the opportunity to hear his fine singing voice.  

A busy chorus made a good sound and were supported by a choir occupying two of the boxes in the auditorium. Similarly, two keyboards had been moved out of the pit to occupy two other boxes and the orchestra was further enhanced by recorded tracks, apparently at the insistence of the composer and provided by the rights holders as part of the licensing agreement.  The experienced MD made light work of all this.

Scenery was minimal save for the raised platform from which Eva delivers her famous speech (“Don’t cry for me”) but there were some excellent lighting effects and, although the start and end can only be sombre, the finale to the first act was a mass of colour from banners and flags for “a new Argentina”.  Costumes, other than Eva’s famous ballgown, were fairly simple but appropriate for the time and it was interesting to find Che dressed simply in shirt and trousers rather than the military style which is more usual for his character.

This Society has never been afraid of tackling some ambitious challenges and again they have succeeded in overcoming potential problems to provide an entertaining production.       

       

     

            

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