Forbidden Theatre

Created, written, directed and choreographed by Dee Bennie-Marshall this super show was a great platform to demonstrate the strength of talent in RTSA.  The story is set in Casey’s Theatre Café, where out of work actors meet to keep each others spirits up whilst theatres around the world close their doors.  Written during lockdown, rehearsals began on line and whilst they were rehearsing as characters deprived of opportunities to perform they were living a parallel real-life.  Being young people who had literally been prevented from performing when the Academies technical rehearsal of Little of Shop of Horrors had been the only chance they had to perform as the country went into lockdown that night in March 2020.  Dee’s love of theatre and her work with young people oozed from every routine and it was definitely a production steeped in experience, knowledge and understanding of the industry.

The young people brought to the show all the emotion and passion they had felt during the experience of being unable to come together and perform.  Through their performances in this show they had the opportunity to demonstrate to the audience some of what the very appreciative audience had also been missing.

Matthew Symonds, as Musical Director, had worked with the young people to perform these numbers with great energy and they were well supported by an excellent live band which appeared on stage throughout.   The songs were all well suited to the characters they played and to the voices of the performers.  The use of songs from many current popular musicals introduced some of the audience to new material.  The ensemble number “You Will Be Found” was particularly engaging and beautifully enhanced by Josh Carter who signed throughout.

The routines were all very energetic and everyone on stage performed with great enthusiasm – the ensemble numbers were impressive in both choreography and the ability of this mixed-aged group to perform such high energy routines.  There were also a number of solo dances all of which were beautifully presented and I particularly enjoyed Sam Berry dancing to ‘He’s My Boy’ which was sung with great passion by Carys Booth who took an excellent role as Mitzi and whom I look forward to seeing more of in future shows.

Ciara Stothard played Kadee, a Scottish character, where she maintained the accent throughout and also sang and danced beautifully in solo and ensemble numbers – a fabulous young performer.  Amelia Depledge produced a strong portrayal of the heartbroken Kerry.  Sam Simmons (Clay) and Roma Cartlidge (Britany) gave great character performances and both were hugely entertaining.

The young ‘Matildas’ gave lovely renditions and made the most of this opportunity to show us their talents as some of the youngest performers on stage.  Very well done Lily Hawkridge, Bea Biglin, Olivia Cousans and Pennie Fox.  While one of the more senior performers, Dan Fenwick, (Frankie) ably held the production together.  A talented actor, Dan also has great stage presence and demonstrates empathy on stage.  His management and eye for detail are clearly evident and his performance of ‘This is the Moment’ was wonderful.

The standout routine for me was ‘Don’t Even Know It’ with Ashcon Rahmani taking the lead ably supported by Alice Iveson and the ensemble.  If someone had told me that we had been transported to the West End stage at that moment and Ashcon was the lead in the professional production I could easily have believed it.  Such was the maturity of his performance that he was totally credible in the role and thoroughly entertaining.  These thoughts were shared by Regional Councillor Les Smith and District Representative Ashley Booker who saw the show on other nights and both felt Ashcon gave an excellent rendition.

The costumes were colourful, effective and perfect for the characters.   As a home-grown production there was no dictated ‘costume plot’ for how this production should look so congratulations to Kath Wall and her team for pulling this off ‘in house’.  The scenery and props were perfect for this story with light and sound to keep this production very sharp.   I enjoyed the highlighting of the relevant poster at the appropriate juncture.

Congratulations to everyone involved – A wonderful evenings entertainment and particularly impressive as its only three weeks since RTSA’s last full scale theatrical production.

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