Matilda Junior

This was the youth group’s first production in eight years and took the form of a week-long summer workshop. There was a large cast of around 45 young people and they all looked like they were having a great time performing this junior version of the multi-award winning musical.

The large stage was filled with oversized alphabet blocks and some flats to represent Matilda’s bedroom, the Wormwoods living room, the library, the schoolroom at Crunchem Hall as necessary.  Changes of scene were handled very efficiently by the stage crew, although a more creative use of props and staging might have rendered some of these unnecessary and less distracting for the audience. Costumes, hair and makeup were all excellent and evidence of much hard work behind the scenes.  Sound and lighting were good and in the absence of a live band, the cast coped well with the backing track.

The principal line-up was extremely well cast.  Matilda had a lovely clear singing voice with excellent diction and great characterisation.  Her renditions of ‘Naughty’ and ‘Quiet’ were particularly memorable.  She was the perfect Matilda and a joy to watch.

Crunchem Hall’s hammer-throwing headmistress, Agatha Trunchbull really looked the part, moved well and gave a suitably threatening and menacing performance.  His/her rendition of ‘The Smell of Rebellion’ was especially good, with the school children joining in with an expertly choreographed sequence of physical exercises.  There was much humour too when he/she got a newt in her knickers.

Miss Honey was very sweet and sang well, especially in ‘This Little Girl’. She had an endearing relationship with Matilda and was very believable as the put upon teacher. Mrs Phelps, the librarian, was nicely portrayed and gave us a clear sense that she was in awe of Matilda’s genius as the story of the acrobat and escapologist unfolded.

Bruce was a great actor and his enthusiastic cake eating was a triumph. He performed with such energy and commitment, never more so than in the opening section of ‘Revolting Children’ where his vocal talents were also on display.  He also proved to be one of the most accomplished dancers. Nigel was simply adorable. He delivered his lines perfectly and I loved the look of fright on his face at the thought of being sent to old chokey.

Mr and Mrs Wormwood worked well together and gave very confident, well acted performances as Matilda’s uncaring and unlikeable Mum and Dad.

The acrobat and escapologist were very good and the ring of fire and flying through the air were handled very creatively.,Rudolpho was suitably flamboyant as the dance instructor and made the scenes with Mrs Wormwood extremely comical.

There was great support from the ensemble throughout and some really excellent choreography. ‘School Song’ had lovely strong arms and actions and all of the young people were well rehearsed and confident. The singing and acting were also excellent and the creative team had obviously worked extremely hard to produce such a high standard in such a short space of time. This really was a great production with an enthusiastic and well drilled cast. The performance was quite rightly well received by the audience and the kids were obviously enjoying their time on the stage.  

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