Evita

There can be very few theatre audiences who do not know the story of Eva Peron and the legend of her life in Argentina. A real life rags to riches story of modern times. The legend was brought to the stage by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

CHAOS stepped away from their usual productions of very safe shows with lots of tuneful musical and dances and accepted the challenges that Evita presents to any company. The show opened on a darkened stage with minimal scenery and few lights.

A strong cast, obviously committed to the show, were very secure in their lines and fully understood the story they were telling and were supportive of each other.

Liz Compton, in the starring role of Eva Peron, has played many roles with the society but few have been quite as challenging as this particular role. She immersed herself totally as the very ambitious woman who knew what she wanted and didn’t really care what she did or who she used to get to her goal. A convincing performance, beautifully sung and one of which Liz can be proud.

She was fully supported by a cast of talented principals. Paul Gardner in his first role with CHAOS as Che, Chris Psaras as Juan Peron, J. Paul Murdock, stalwart member of the society as Augustin Magaldi and Jennie Wall as Juan’s Mistress brought the story to life and covered every emotion of Eva’s amazing life from the 15 year old young woman to her death from cancer at the young age of 33.

There are many songs in this show and they were in the capable hands of a strong chorus and descriptive choreography kept the show from being neither boring nor slow moving. The cast were responsible for getting props on stage and moving furniture which they accomplished with ease.

 For me it was an evening of dramatic musical theatre and many congratulations to the Company for stepping out of their usual comfort zone

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