Into The Woods

With one of the first productions of this show in this area, LTC, once again produced an outstanding performance.  I am not a great fan of Sondheim’s music although I do admire his lyrics and the company really did justice to the entire show.   Every word was clearly enunciated, which was important as the show is largely sung, and the very tricky musical phrasing was expertly delivered by everyone.

For those not familiar with the show it could have been said that it was all over by the end of the first half.  Of course, this is the skill of the story telling, as the second half was all about what happens after ‘happy ever after’ and it is not a pretty sight!  Director Dave Lobley brought the two vastly different halves together into one coherent production.

Every single member of the cast had a character and it was clear that they had all worked very hard to develop that character for their own performance.  Victoria Tewes (playing the Bakers wife) was on stage for a very large part of the show and she had a lot of songs to sing, which she did well. Jamie Redgate (playing the Baker) gave an excellent interpretation of the part, with just the right level of diffidence and apparent lack of courage.  Sarah Pettican made an excellent witch, quite scary and very mean initially and quite assertive after the transformation (more of which later).  Tobias Smith was really good as Jack with a strong singing voice and good stage presence.   Simon Bristoe doubled as the Wolf (excellent portrayal which reminded me of someone but I can’t quite remember who!) and Cinderella’s Prince.  He really had a lot of fun with this second character much to the enjoyment of the audience.   Chris Lidgard played Rapunzel’s Prince, a very good foil to Simon’s Prince and there was some great byplay between the two.

Other characters were played by Rebecca Perry-Gamble (Little Red Ridinghood) Julian Cottee (doubling as the Narrator and the Mysterious Man) Hannah Allwright (Rapunzel) Carla Cater (Jack’s Mother) Lianne Larth (Cinderella’s stepmother) Jess Byford and Kate Andrews (Ugly Sisters, Lucinda and Florinda) Olly Gourley (Steward) Sally Lightfoot (3 parts! Cinderella’s ‘dead’ mother, Granny and the Giantess) Andy Gourley (Cinderella’s, usually drunk, father) with Maizie Cossey, Lucy-Jane Hickey and Helen Archer sharing the two roles of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty.

I mentioned the Witches transformation earlier and, for me this was one of just two slightly disappointing moments in the show.   There was a blackout, which was longer than I would have liked and when the lights came up, she wasn’t in place so there was no magic to it.  The other disappointment was the effects (or lack of them) around the Giantess scene.  Just having a scary voice and everyone looking offstage and up didn’t cut it for me I am afraid.  However these are the only two points that I would have liked to see improve on!

Rachael Plunkett has clearly worked very hard to get the cast to such a high standard of singing, Sondheim’s music is notoriously difficult to sing but, as far as I could tell, they didn’t get a note out of place.

The scenery was quite simply outstanding, very cleverly designed and beautifully executed; congratulations are fully deserved to Gerry Davis and his team of set builders and well done to the stage crew who had a lot of work to do moving the trucks about.

The costumes were beautiful, some quite familiar to me, but it was lovely to see them being re-incarnated, well done to Carla Cater for the excellent effect throughout the show.  The lighting was also excellent and very atmospheric.  There were a couple of occasions when the mics were not turned up quickly enough, thankfully the cast were professional enough to recognise this and made allowances but I can never understand why, if an actor is on stage, the mics are ever turned down.

Another stunning production from LTC, well done.

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