Globetrotters

How do you make a show for twenty-four young people of a variety of ages and different levels of experience, all wanting to shine? The answer is, if you are David Knights, write them a bespoke piece, the more bizarre the better! This year the scenario is: a man dies and his will leaves his fortune to his children. The four offspring living in his mansion are delighted, but then it transpires that this man has twenty-four children in total. Many are at boarding school, three have joined the circus and six are poor little Oliver type urchins. And to make matters worse, only one child will actually get the fortune when they have undertaken a quest around the world to find the treasure.

First and foremost, I think it is important to give a big shout out to a team of adults who support these young people to gain such confidence and make a family of friends. So here is a mention to the team, in no particular order. David Knights, Lynsey Fothergill, Jamie Knights, Sevi Ledgard, Michelle Corcoran, Ruby Richardson, Aidan Knights, Isla Wakely, Peter Howarth, Rob Green, Bethany Green and Matthew Stewart. It is a common theme in amateur theatre that there is a shortage of these back stage volunteers who are the life blood of theatre, and I hope your young performers are very grateful for all the work that this small team do.

There was a lot going on in this performance and it was often difficult to discern from the programme who was who, so do forgive me if your name doesn’t appear. But here are some of my highlights. I enjoyed If I Were a Man sung by the aristocrats Ella Judson, Olivia Waite and Maisy Harness. The School Kids had great energy and volume when singing together and there were some great little cameos from Thea Leiper, Ava Sutcliffe and Grace Harness. The running joke from Three Girls on a Lifeboat Willow Milner, Ada Davis and Aniela Entwistle was such fun. Well done to them.

There was some good choreography throughout, but I especially enjoyed the coach scene, and a smiling cast showed me that they liked this number too. Callie Wroot, the Customs Officer played a great character and was also good as the fiddling devil. I liked the Little People gang, they sang this short clip with confidence. The Harness sisters were great in Get Back Up Again and everyone put lots of energy into POSH which was a super number to sing and the theme of the show.

Unfortunately, we did see on a number of occasions how hard it can be to sing to backing tracks. Timing can be tricky and it was sometimes difficult for the kids to get the pitch right at the start. Flash, Bang, Wallop should have been great but all the cast struggled with the key.

The evening ended splendidly with the presentation of NODA Youth Award badges. Just one when I was there, but several more on Saturday when Les Smith will be attending. Congratulations to the young people who have been faithful members for three years or more. I presented a certificate to Emillie Lucas. Theatre is such a wonderful hobby.

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