Find Nemo JR

Finding Nemo JR is the classic Disney film that has been made into an accessible musical for a Youth society.  The first thing that needs to be said and something that I believe is important is that all roles, directors, choreography and the technical team are members of the Digswell expression and are under 18, that is impressive!

There were four directors Adam Grant, Alice Hoxha, Amelia Brown and Rosie Lovell, this is sometimes difficult to juggle, from an audience’s point of view it looked like a cohesive piece, well done for working together and being able to create a good piece of theatre.

Harry Dobbs had the composure of Marlin and played the role of dad well, he had the air of maturity needed, while Michael Hunter had the youthful enthusiasm needed for Nemo, and Michael had a lovely voice.

Alexa Davies played the forgetful Dory, very funny and had a good partnership with Harry as Marlin.

Zach Fernandez, Eva Harrison, Abigail Johnson and Raif Hoxha played Gill, Peach, Gurgle and Bloat, who are the four fish that help Nemo escape.  They are had lovely characterisations making each one of the fish unique.  The costumes were also very good each one cleverly made to fit the character.

Crush (Alex Brown), Squirt (Tilly Campbell), Breeze (Jasmine Lund) and Kai (James Cambell) were the turtles that helped Marlin and Dory, their characterisations of the surfer dudes reminded very much of the turtles in the film, and I must say James Cambell’s voice stood out what a lovely voice!

The sections I really enjoyed, and I thought were beautifully done were the seagulls, the actors involved had fun and the comic timing was very good.

The rest of the cast performed as various underwater characters, the choreography was good, it showed it had been well rehearsed and thought out.  When there are so many cast members on stage it can look very busy, however this was thought out and everyone could be seen in all numbers, no easy feat and as I said above for an under 18 well-done Rosie Lovell, I look forward to seeing what you can do with adults!

The set was lovely the flats were beautifully painted to create an underwater scene, and the lighting with blue and green being used from above added to the underwater theme.  The UV section was a lovely idea I know this did not work how it was designed the night I saw the show, however it does not take away from the idea.

I really enjoyed the evening as did my daughter who is 10 and is the target audience for the show, she openly said it was a very enjoyable evening and she thoroughly enjoyed herself, and it was lovely meeting Carl and speaking to Peter Holt.  Congratulations to all involved.

Scott Welch

Reps district 9

NODA East

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