Matilda Jr

The much-loved musical version of Roald Dahl’s Matilda was the debut offering of the junior arm of Hilltop Theatre Company in Pentyrch. The musical takes the audience through the well-known children’s story with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin.

The society opted for a basic, but well-constructed and colourful set that allowed the large cast to use the playing space well throughout the production.

In the title role, Seren Maunder did a nice job. She sang well and had a good character.  She had great stage presence and held the audience's attention throughout.

Mabli Rogers shone as kind teacher, Miss Honey. She was vocally impressive in the musical numbers.

Shane Probert gave a larger-than-life performance as Miss Trunchbull. He had great comic timing and a strong character.

As Mr and Mrs Wormwood, James Gardner and Evie Parker gave two good comedic performances. They worked well together and with Niall Dorrington who joined them as the flamboyant Rudolpho. A very funny performance; well done.

Ada Watkins was clearly having the time of her life as Lavender. Her performance was full of energy and character. She engaged well with the audience as well as her fellow cast members. Very well played.

There were far too many lovely performances to mention everyone individually but a big well done should go to Lilly Salmon (Mrs Phelps), Beti Baird (Amanda Thripp),

Thomas Barry (Bruce Bogtrotter), Jack Evans (Escapologist), Mia Cooper (Acrobat) and Chloe Morgan (The Cook) for their excellent efforts in bringing something extra to their characters and really enhancing the performance.

I was very impressed with the speed of scene changes and these were carried out entirely by the cast of ‘big kids’. Not only did they work very hard in all the major ensemble numbers but they formed an almost professional standard stage crew that any society would be lucky to have! Well done everyone, super job!

I also really enjoyed the vocal performances from Erin Markham and Poppy Morgan.

I wasn't able to see the second cast but I'm sure their performances were equally brilliant to this one.

Choreography was well thought out and appropriate for the cast’s size and capabilities and costuming was really lovely.

Direction from Emily Porter was excellent. Each person had a distinct character and scenes had good pace and flow to them.

My only real low point was the sound quality. The backing tracks were excessively loud and the microphones did not work very well throughout the performance. The audience missed a lot of the dialogue and singing due to these technical issues which was a real shame for this very talented group of youngsters.

I, along with everyone else in the audience, went away from the performance with a smile on my face. This was a very brave choice for a first junior production but one that this society met head on, and with aplomb. A lovely, entertaining evening out. Thank you, Hilltop!

 

The views in this report are solely of the author.

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