Matilda The Musical Jr

First of all, congratulations to Mark Rutherford School for forming ‘Make Your Mark Theatre Company,’ we wish you every success with it and if your first production under this banner is anything to go buy you have made a great start!

I have seen the musical version of Matilda Jr. before with a younger age group who did it without  this full set of scenery, and my first impression is what an incredibly complicated production to put on. I don’t think I’ve seen so many scene changes in my life! The sheer logistics of this show is quite staggering, and the real stars of this show have to be the scene shifters who must have done the equivalent of a marathon in this show. So take a well deserved bow, Maddy Hastings, Leah Bradley, Amelie Gaunt, Amy Flemens, Jessica O’Brien, Noah Pickard, Jack Garratt and Imogen Llewellyn – brilliant job!

The set itself was I presume hired in as it consisted of, well, to be quite honest I lost count of the number of trucks and pieces of furniture, but it must have been in the dozens. There were bookcases, which reversed and opened out into bedrooms or offices, gates, walls, statues, tables, beds and colourful alphabetical blocks which served as seats in school and other scenes in fact too many to recall to be honest, but all were seamlessly moved as required by the cast and crew. Even a pair of swings appeared from the tracks above for one scene. To either side of the stage were four tall thin curved fixed flats with piles of collapsing books painted on them. Amazing well made!

So congratulations to Stage Managers, Mrs Farnsworth and Lucy Bichener for the sheer organisation both in front of and behind the scenes. Yes, there were occasional pregnant pauses and missed or late props, but this was the opening night and it would have been a miracle to have perfected it first time out in front of an audience, but I’m sure it will be incredibly slick by the end of the run. 

The sound and lighting by Mr McKenzie was excellent with some very colourful washes impressive from the moment we arrived, a stage washed in magenta. With all the complicated scene changes on such a large stage it was impressive that all the relevant acting areas were cued in so efficiently. Once or twice actors found themselves in the dark and had to hurriedly scurry into a spot lit area, but again it was first night and to be expected. Otherwise, a superb job!

Costumes by Ms Day and Mrs Wells were very appropriately sourced with some school uniforms and colourful outfits for some of the peripheral characters such as Rudolpho or The Escapologist. Loved the suit for Mr Wormwood.

And now for our young actors, a talented bunch indeed. Savannah Rogers as Matilda was a very strong and confident lead showing herself to be a very experienced actor with a very clear delivery of Matilda’s various emotions. Ella Price was the kindly Miss Honey with a soft mild manner and was totally appropriate for the part. Able Babalola was something else as the evil Miss Trunchball. A tall girl who used her height to dominate perfectly especially in the way she hunched her shoulders, and the use of her eyes to express her anger was mesmerizingly scary. Fabulous performance!

Freya Merryweather and Fin Shuttleworth as the uncaring Mr and Mrs Wormwood certainly put themselves across as the wicked couple very well. Loved the wig. And not to forget Fin Ruppersburg as Michael who sat by the tele, baseball cap to one side, which couldn’t fail to bring a smile to your face. Other notable characters included Niamh Baily as Mrs Phelps, Jay Bailey as a pretty passable acrobat, Anthony Hubball as the daredevil escapologist and Olly Slater as the very camp Rudolpho, who is obviously very popular and received loud cheers from his fan club in the audience every time he appeared, of which of course he took full advantage. Good lad!

Backing them up as Matilda’s classmates were Cayla Saunyama (Alice), Jess Murphy (Nigel), Jessica King (Eric), Orla Matthewman (Lavender) Lily Birch (Hortensia), Enya Hough (Amanda), Rebecca Corey (Bruce) and Jacob Orr (Tommy). All supported by an excellent chorus of Amy Garratt, Unathi Moyo, Caitlyn Cusano, Sofia Mahwing, Emily Fraser, Abi Killen, Jessica Cimelli, Kyia Harding, Demi Johnson, Evie Morton, Mya Dhariwal and Flora Lussmann

So well done Directors Mrs Farnsworth, Mr Alex McKenzie and Make Your Mark Theatre Company for giving us a very entertaining evening with such a complicated production, and a very well presented programme as well. I was quite in awe of your efforts. Happy Christmas to you all I very much look forward to your 2023 productions

 

 

 

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