Maskerade

I have to confess to being completely ignorant of the Terry Pratchett books having had a nephew who tried to explain the stories to me until I begged him to stop. So it was with much trepidation that I sat down to watch this production. However, once I realised Maskerade was based on the story of the Phantom of the Opera, I could relax. Or at least that is what I thought… The fast paced story with all of the twists and turns that I would expect from the pen of Pratchett kept me on my toes throughout the performance. There were two stories going on at the same time; one about the theatre and the ‘Masked’ ghost that kept appearing and the other about two witches who were going to bring a wayward witch back into the fold.

The talented group of youngsters had a ball performing this play and I enjoyed it very much, especially with the underscoring of several arias from operas that were referred too. My only observation is that some of the underscoring did drown the dialogue of the quieter cast members. Several of the cast had more than one role due to the vast number of characters in the play and they all managed the transition from one to the other effortlessly. The characters were well cast; Conor Stobart as Mr Salzella and Dom Edwards as Mr Bucket were very strong and the reference to Mr Bouquet was hilarious. Sam Collins as Walter Plinge characterised both personas very well. The other ‘theatre’ performers with more than one role were all good, but their main roles were Lauren Shipley as a very self centred Christine, Harriett Stack as Mrs Plinge, Megan Merrell as Andre, Danielle Whiteley as Dr Underschaft, Tamzin Moon as Enrico Basilica, Alfie Newman as Mr Pounder, Josh Skyrme as the Manager, Seren Middleton as Colette, Lily McNamara as Giselle. Loren Merrell was so funny as Greebo the feline/human.

The three witches were played by Katie Lloyd as Agnes Nitt who really wanted to be Perdita an opera star, Annis Newman as the sensible and somewhat grumpy Granny Weatherwax and Vanessa Thomas was Nanny Ogg, the inventive and mischievous one. The easy way in which Annis and Vanessa interacted with each other was a joy to watch. They had perfect timing which gave the audience the opportunity to take in all of the humour.  Vanessa was very aware of the audience and played up to them superbly. 

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