Matilda Jr

There is always a friendly face at the box office, this time it was Choreographer Liam Nixon, moonlighting again after returning from the Land of Make Believe.

With this small theatre and the steps to the seating virtually leading of the stage one always has the opportunity to admire the set immediately. To appreciate how talented the set painters are and how they can, combined with the set construction team, work wonders in such a confined space. There were clearly defined areas on the stage, the Wormwoods Living Room, the Library, Miss Trunchbull’s trophy ‘cabinet’, and an opening row of cubes spelling M A T I L D A which were used and deftly move around by the young cast. A nice touch was that each cube was individually spotted at the opening. Technology came to the fore when a Blackboard ‘magically’ wrote a message to Miss Trunchball towards the finale of the story.

Clever directing and choreography managed to cram 37 youngsters onto this stage, but it never looked crowded, the company numbers were well sung, clear and in tune right from the opening number where we met the named school children as they sang ‘Miracle’. We also meet Matilda, a good strong performance given to us by Matilda! She didn’t falter throughout the whole show and gave us strong acting and singing throughout, who knew she had magical powers as well as standing up to Miss Trunchball, coping with stupid parents, storytelling with Mrs. Phelps and standing alongside Miss Honey.   

Matilda was no doubt the star of the show, however she was clearly matched by the fearsome Miss Trunchball, the strongly awesome Lucia singing so well in ‘The Hammer’ and ‘The Smell of Rebellion’ dominating the ‘classroom’ both times. The rather timidly Miss Honey was delightfully characterised by Madeleine who gave us a wonderfully sympathetic ‘This Little Girl’ this was a great portrayal. Arina who played the understanding librarian Mrs. Phelps (a non-singing role) came across well. There were a range of named classmates who all had various solo lines and had great fun as rebellious school children, this is quite a list but a special mention of Isabel (Bruce Bogtrotter) who gorged ‘himself’ on cake, with a nicely played role later stuffing ‘himself’ with cake, Maisie S as Matilda’s special friend Lavender, also Ava, Orla, Emily, Violet, Nirvana and Ollie (who coped well with his voice beginning to break, and having to pick his nose!) Ruby-Grace and Jayden gave us lovely comedy roles as Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood, I much enjoyed Jayden’s accent. Also to Ryan for the simple role of Michael, I was glad to see he was kept busy with his quick changes by also being a member of the company. Matilda’s imagination gave us an Escapologist, Maria, and an Acrobat, Ebony, who danced their way through their roles.

This was a well-lit show with great costumes, the choreography was energetic, I was sure that all the youngsters must be exhausted after their school gymnasium scene, Liam had put them through an intense scene here. Throughout his Choreography was quick, energetic and well disciplined. I was a little disappointed with Matilda’s scene ‘Naughty’ with the mixing of the hair dye and hair tonic, the singing was great but if I hadn’t seen the show before I don’t think I would have known what was happening. However Jo and Rebecca had certainly put the young cast through their paces with characterisation and diction and all the characters came across very well. There was a very good lighting plot and the two blackouts to allow Matilda to change were not really noticed at all, probably because there was a good choice of music to cover that. Costumes throughout were excellent as always, there were some great props, a falling glass and trophy and a great scene with lots of hockey sticks. I also enjoyed the portrayal of the school gates. The show came to an end with the Kids giving a great rendition of ‘Revolting Children’ and the audience was much appreciative during the bows.

Well done all.

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