Matilda

As the years go by, one of my great pleasures is to watch the development, growth and ambition of Castle Newnham School’s performing arts department and their theatre company, 4SIXTEEN. So on a hot steamy evening in July a full audience piled into their studio theatre for what must be one of their most ambitious projects yet, Roald Dahl’s Matilda . Take about 90 pupils, divide them into two teams, Blue and Yellow and then put on eight shows over a whole week. Monday to Saturday. Now that is an ambitious and pretty daunting logistical project for any NODA society. The time, effort and commitment to pull it off is not to be underestimated. But then this is 4SIXTEEN, a group currently at the top of their game!

For those unfamiliar with the story, Matilda is a schoolgirl that has astonishing wit, intelligence.and special powers! She's unloved by her cruel parents but impresses her schoolteacher, the highly loveable Miss Honey. Matilda's school life isn't completely smooth sailing, however – the school's mean headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, hates children and just loves thinking up new punishments for those who don't abide by her rules. But Matilda has courage and cleverness in equal amounts, and has the courage to say ‘That’s not right!’

The set was a simplistic but very clever set of blocks moved around by the well drilled actors themselves to depict the various scenes serving as seating or platforms as required, with just the addition of props as required for each scene. This kept the action and pace of this high energy show moving very smoothly indeed.  

Ben Cronin on lighting and Emily Green and Jack Serino on sound were absolutely on song with their respective plots. Everything on cue and the correct sound balance for this studio now appears to be almost there. Not an easy feat with so many head mics in a small studio. But I will make my usual comment about the habit of using mics is in danger of consigning the art of projection to history, which would be a shame in my opinion. I would love to see them do a show in this studio without them.

The other great thing about visiting 4SIXTEEN is the continual discovery of new talent they keep unearthing and this production once again was no exception. Sorry if I don’t mention everybody from a cast of 19 named parts and an ensemble of a further 19.

Annalise Reveglia was absolutely Matilda, she looked the part from head to toe and had the confidence of youth to carry it off. It was a classy, precocious, cheeky performance which kept you riveted throughout. Very strong vocal rage as well and she pulled off her musical numbers with some panache! 

Oliver Rogers, as the only member of both casts in the part of the evil Miss Trunchbull really does deserve high praise, firstly for playing the part of a woman and secondly for pulling it off so convincingly! Superb evil performance and pretty powerful set of vocal chords to go with it. Well done!

Amy Bird is definitely one to watch with this gorgeous almost understated performance as the kind Miss Honey. Fabulous empathy with Matilda and a spellbinding voice to go with it. Loved it!

Zack Holden as the awful father Mr Wormwood, did manage to put quite a lot of humour into a performance of what is basically a totally unlikeable character, which I thought was really rather skilful. Loved the green wig and his reaction to it!

Annabel Goodbody certainly caught my eye as the equally awful Mrs Wormwood, especially her rendition of Loud which came with some brilliant choreography.  Definitely another one to watch.

And Thomas Johnson certainly made us smile with his cheeky portrayal of Matilda’s naughty brother Michael.

Well done also to Flynn Sibley (Bruce Bogtrotter), Elia Russel (Tommy), Sophie Endersby (Lavender), Iris Gibson (Amanda), Cristofer Modaffen (Nigel), Karina Vaiciulyte (Hortensia), Stanley Adebogun (Eric), Ella Dawson (Alice), Willow Woodfine (Mrs Phelps), Holly Jo Clark-Cree (The Acrobat), Peter Neghina (The Escapologist), Scarlett Garvi-Gorringe (Sergei) and Bobby Aliender (Rudolpho).

This was an excellent well drilled confident cast who thoroughly entertained from beginning to end and in that respect huge credit must go to Resident Director, Tara Hutchings and her assistant directors and choreographers, Letitia Bonson, Daniella Reynolds,  Luke Skeel and the team of Pupil production assistants, Daisy Loft, Lola Alleyn, Maisie Perry, Sophie Bell, Mica Bedeau, Keira Alleyne and Ben Cronin led by stage manager Bethan Lee for not only taking on this massive logistics project but producing such a slick show with such a large cast, not forgetting they had to do so with two teams of actors! Remarkable!!

 

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