Goldilocks & The Three Bears

This was great fun as seeing the embryonic beginnings of acting careers of future generations is always both entertaining and enlightening. In this case it was years three and four of Castle Newnham School’s drama society, 4SIXTEEN. This school year has seen some important changes in personnel as well with Emily Green and Daniella Reynolds being appointed Federation Heads of Performing Arts. But the show itself was directed by Samantha Smith and Mollie McAteer and was somewhat of a loose connection to the original story. No missing bowls of porridge this time. In this case it was set in a circus environment, with Goldilocks and her circus owning family having fallen on hard times, who turn for help to three musically talented bears to help turn their fortunes around. Meanwhile the evil ringmaster, who harbours ambitions to take over the circus from Goldilocks and her family sets out to foil their plans. A neat new twist on this timeless story, but sadly the writing of this little forty-minute script is uncredited in the programme. I was told later that the script was written by the School's Performing Arts department.

The studio theatre at Castle Newnham is in the round, or, to be pedantic, an oblong stage surrounded on all sides by the audience, which made it ideal to set up as a circus ring. And what a clever design by Sophie Kelk it was! The whole floor had been perfectly painted into red and white triangular, perfectly symmetrical segments radiating out from a single white box in the centre, which was then the centrepiece of the action. A string of pendant flags then completed the set suspended above our heads depicting the boundary of the circus ring. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to work that out so accurately, but my goodness it certainly set the circus scene well!

Lighting by that now seasoned professional, Year 11 student Ben Cronin was suitably atmospheric with some great washes and cued to perfection as per usual. 4SIXTEEN are going to miss him next year as he moves on to college.

Sound by Emily Green was a bit hit and miss as I’m not convinced all the face mics were always working, and I have to confess my ageing ears did struggle with the dialogue at times. Children especially the younger ones do tend to speak both softly and quickly and sadly the art of projection is fast going out of fashion with this new available electronic sound technology. Very few modern actors can make a stage whisper reach the ‘gods’ these days. More's the pity!

Our Goldilocks was very confident Rose Gregory who lead the cast with some confidence, a big smile and aplomb.  I certainly look forward to seeing her career progress though the school with interest.

We had not one but three narrators enthusiastically keeping us on track in Nate Dunkley, Henry Smith and Rose Regan. Nice job, well done. All backed up by Dolly Davis as Betty and Joshua Holden as Timmy.

Our three bears, suited up in their bear costumes and excellent face makeup were Hollie Clarke-Rodney as Mama Bear, Ameen Ferguson as Papa Bear and Beatrice Felice as Baby Bear.

Wolf Sharp was our Evil Ringmaster complete with his ringmaster stick, stamping his authority on proceedings as he circled the ring, winding up the audience and eliciting lots of boos every time he appeared. Wonderful stuff!

Then we had Charlie King as Felix, Olivia Darnell as Bella and Anisha Hughes as Luna. Some Evil rabbits played by Muhammed Kabir, Oria Watters, Freddie Coombes and Henry Shaw. Our pair of Ringmasters henchmen played by Sunny Pudney-Hunjan and Georgia Regan. And all was presented by Dahlia Davies. 

The Ensemble was divided into two casts for the 4 performances of this show, Blue and Yellow and the performance I saw was the Yellow Ensemble of: Esme Fisher, Megan Robb, Layla Armah, Lola Grant-Jones, Bella-Romina Saulle, Beatric Regueira Howe, Zachariah Challis, Nola Crawley-Roberts, Lauren Darnell, Nicola Grigaliunaite, Alaska Black, Daisy Wright, Lenka Millard, Maddison Robinson, James Cook, William Crane, Mila Swords, Cassidy Yarr, Nyah Tankard, Nyah Whyatt and Layal Saeed. Well done to all of them.

We also had some great songs, with some of the words adapted to the plot varying from: We’re So Excited, Count On Me, Morning Person, Shine Bright, Be Prepared, Don’t Stop Me Now, Circus Act and Can’t Stop the Feeling, not the easiest of numbers, but which these youngsters bravely took on with confidence. Very impressive.

So, all in all an enlightening afternoon and a first glimpse into the talent that is going to come through 4SIXTEEN in the coming years. Definitely one or two stars in the making who I look forward to following in the years to come. Well done to Directors, Samantha Smith and Mollie McAteer, very much enjoyed by the audience of parents, grandparents and siblings, and yours truly.

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