Monster Mayhem

The welcome from Carol Laidler was very warm and it is appreciated that she always reserves a good seat and finds the time to greet us.  There was an audience of around 140 but it was a very wet evening and hopefully there were more on the second evening.

The colourful programme listed all participants, gave a welcome from the director, Traci, a breakdown of the two acts together with a list of staff and the whole production team.  The whole First Act Team work extremely hard on these productions and it is good that they are acknowledged and credited in this manner.

Act One of Monster Mayhem was action packed with an enthusiastic cast dressed in stunning costumes, predominantly green tee shirts and red trousers, with the helpers dressed in black. Added adornments indicated the different factions, comprising werewolves, zombies and vampires.  Sarah Louise McAvoy and Carl Harvey were in the lead roles as Humans. They kept up a good pace and worked well together. It is always a joy to watch Sarah Louise dance. The musical play was well choreographed, and the pace was excellent. The whole cast put their all into this performance and it was very enjoyable.

Act Two was a repeat of the popular showcasing of the talents of each cast member, billed as their Monster Cabaret. With all cast sitting around the stage each performer took centre stage to entertain us and entertain us they did! The cabaret was opened and closed with an all-cast line up singing and dancing. The twenty-four individual cast members then entertained us with, not only, a variety of singing and dancing but also we witnessed an impressive Martial Arts demonstration, courtesy of Aaron Danvers Jukes. Rachel Stone encouraged everyone to join in an Audience Participation exercise which involved standing up and singing and much hilarity. It was very well received. Alex Westmore, resplendent in his tuxedo, gave a very good performance with his violin. The talented Ashleigh Jones sang his very own rap which received rapturous applause. Very popular was Catherine Coeshott who gracefully danced with scarves to Nightwish before doing the splits. Full credit to her and it would be good to see more of this style of dance in the future as it was memorable. It must be said that all performers were extremely good. There are some excellent singers and dancers in the group. It was striking to see how much support the performers gave each other and so good that everyone was on stage together.

A special mention must go to Carl Harvey who, as well as performing in Act One, carried out his role as Host with great stage presence. He was able to competently engage with the audience with his humour and confidence.

Huge congratulations to everyone for brightening up a wet miserable evening and ensuring that the audience left the theatre with smiles on their faces already looking forward to the next show.

© NODA CIO.  All rights reserved. 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.