Fantastic Mr Fox ( Youth)

The latest play produced by the talented “Chorley Youth Theatre” was the story of “Fantastic Mr Fox” written by the very popular children’s writer Roald Dahl. The story was adapted for the stage by David Wood  and was first performed at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry in 2001 
The production team of Director Naomi Cook Assistant Director Macy Bromilow , Producer Beth Whittle and Assistant Producer Loren Dougan must have planned and worked hard to get what they wanted from this show.
With an outstanding talented cast, excellent well-thought-out and built scenery depicting the foxhole under a tree, which along with applicable props, good sound and lighting and brilliantly designed costumes added authenticity to the story. There was smooth efficient transitions between scenes which meant the pace was spot on, well done to Stage Manager Liesl Cook, Assistant Stage Manager Hannah Borer and all backstage workers.This production was as the title says a fantastic piece of entertainment. 
The story is about clever Mr. Fox who lives underground beside a tree with his wife and four children. to feed his family, he makes night visits to local farms  owned by three rather dim-witted farmers, their names were Boggis, Bunce and Bean. Tired of being outsmarted by Mr. Fox, the farmers devise a plan to ambush him as he leaves his burrow, but they succeed only in shooting off his tail. We follow the farmers  as they develop other failed outlandish plans to catch and kill Mr Fox and watch as he successfully outwits them.
There was a large cast who all worked together to make this a successful  entertaining production. I would like to name them all as I think they all deserve a mention but unfortunately the list is too long, so I will just mention the names of the main characters who all performed excellently with no weak links   They included Leigh Palmer as a fantastic clever Mr Fox, who was well complemented by Lucy Wood as Mrs Fox, Katie Jones was  Badger the narrator of the story, who spoke  very clearly  and could be heard easily. The three farmers who were  unsuccessful in hunting Mr Fox and getting nowhere except  being frustrated were very comical characters, and were played by Charlie Kemp as Bean, Rachel Moran Boggis and Hayley Gaskell as Bunce.Other entertaining characters were Gemma Essery as Mrs Badger, with Libby Smith- Hughes as Small Badger and last but definitely not least the Fox  children, Lauren Menzies, Frankie Budge,  Ruby Johnson and Joshua Bland. The principle characters were excellently supported by the rest of the cast playing different countryside animals, they all appeared confident and well rehearsed and were enjoying themselves.
The audience which included lots of children were fully engaged, their appreciation was demonstrated by their response to the show. Congratulations to all involved in bringing this fantastic production to the stage and thank you so much for inviting me I really enjoyed myself.

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