Godspell

Westcliff High School for Boys treated us to a performance of Godspell in their Library Theatre. This is a show that I haven’t seen performed for so long, and conjured up in my mind, visions of flower power from the sixties. Mr Jeffreys, the director, and the cast took a completely different tack. We entered to a dystopian scene of service cleaners overseen by supervisors accompanied by a slow droning chant and low lighting. The dais on which the action took place was surrounded on three sides by audience and a gallery contained more viewers. It was a fabulously immersive effect which drew us all into the action due to the proximity of the actors.

The first actor to start the performance was Oliver Street who drew a note from nowhere to start the song of Prepare Ye. He played the part of John the Baptist but was referred to as Dio in the programme. He had such confidence and poise. He played the role of Judas in the second act and his stage presence and voice were terrific as was the empathy and mental turmoil depicted by Judas.  All members of the cast had multiple roles to illustrate the parables in the gospel according to Matthew. The introduction to each parable was led by Gabriel Williams, referred to as Ena in the programme, who assumed the role of Jesus, as a preacher and story teller. As he introduced each character by drawing them to the centre of the dais, the invited character would repeat his role and then the fun part of enacting the parable would start. It felt like the enactment was led by the pupils themselves. These improvised segments of the show were wonderful. They had the effect of drawing us all into the stories and the changes in dynamic within the group who were learning to love and value their fellow man. The parables were played with a lot of fun and even mentions of world politicians and Doritos were included in the improvised dialogue! Gabriel, as Jesus, was cast superbly. He possessed the kindness, compassion and authority needed for this role His voice was soft but strong and carried the compassionate thread of the theme throughout the show. In particular, he showed great maturity in his role during the especially poignant and shocking crucifixion and betrayal scenes.

There were many great performances throughout this show and, although I can’t mention all of the cast, I will pick out a couple. Emma Clark, referred to as Alpha in the programme, stunned us with the quality of her voice and stage presence. Emma sang the well-known song from the show ‘Day by Day’ beautifully and sang in other songs with harmony and tuneful grace notes supporting the melody. Conor Lynch-Wyatt, referred to as Beta, was another amazing presence on the stage especially in full plumage at the start of the second act. His song ‘We beseech thee’ was great fun.

Perhaps the most poignant moment came when the shy and afraid younger member of the cast was persuaded to join in the community by Jesus and, from sitting quietly in the aisle, took centre stage to sing beautifully and with confidence. Congratulations Max Lippe, referred to as Omicron in the programme, this was a great performance.

Listening to the songs I realised how beautiful they are and the cast understood the meaning of the lyrics and never stepped out of character. This showed such great maturity in performance and empathy to each other. Whilst referring to the songs I must mention the superb band, under the leadership of Mr Wood, that accompanied the performers. The sound they produced was excellent especially the confident drummer, Oliver Parfett. Mr Wood has my admiration for coaxing such great singing and harmonies from the cast.

Choreography was original and fun under the leadership of Ms Milner and the costumes were thoughtfully and cleverly put together from the colourful suit for Jesus to the menacing’ overlords’ masks and cloaks.

I realise I have only skimmed over the content of this wonderful show but I must mention the atmospheric lighting and perfect sound quality led by Liam Pike as well as the production team who are so important as support to the overall production.

Thank you so much for inviting me to your show and making me so welcome

I’m really looking forward to future shows at Westcliff High School for Boys.

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