Fun Home

This musical is taken from the autobiography of the American author and cartoonist Alison Bechdel and tells of her early years as a child through to her time at college and her relationship with her father who battles with his inner turmoil and ultimately his suicide. Set in their family home in Pennsylvania, the family consist of her two brothers, her mother Helen and father Bruce Bechdel. The story starts in 1970 with the younger Alison played by Chloe Boardley as she opens the show with a beautifully sung solo. A very brave thing for one so young.  The youngest of the children is John and was played by Jensen Minns and his elder brother Christian played by Louie Bloomfield. These young actors were extremely talented and amazing in their acting, singing, remembering their dance moves perfectly and also helping to move the set and props during the scene changes. An impressive addition to their performing CV. They were all aged between 7 and 13 were played by other actors on alternative performances.  The others were   Molly Raishbrook played by Small Alison, Sebastian Merrigan played Christian and Toby Moore played John. 

There was also a 19-year-old Alison covering the period when she was at College and Riley Britchfield was brilliant and very confident in her role. The older Alison, a 42-year-old cartoonist, was portrayed by Lesley Burrows. Through virtually all the performance we see her sitting at her drawing board as she is remembering and reacting to the storyline which is going on around her. A difficult part to play but she was captivating and brought emotion to her performance mainly with just her facial expressions. Her father Bruce was played by Tim Holder who mastered the intense emotions involved in this extremely challenging piece of dramatic theatre.

Catherine Roberts brought an affinity and warmth to the role of Helen, as the children’s mother, whilst having to deal with her emotions at what was happening to her very disturbed husband Bruce.  The cast also included Alison’s college lover Martha Carson as Joan and multiple roles for Jordan Peck.

The majority of the dialogue is sung through, with a technically very difficult score, but the cast gave quality and confident performances under the leadership of Matthew Snow the musical Director, the Conductor, Olly Wood along with the very professional band, who were all excellent. Choreography from Suzie Lowe was impressive from the whole cast right down to the very young members all giving the numbers plenty of well-timed energy.  With a minimal set and the cast moving the props during the scene changes along with the use of projected images onto the screens the pace was upheld and flowed smoothly.

Under the sensitive direction of Steve Wooldridge this challenging production was excellently performed by this talented cast.

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