My Fair Lady

Iconic is certainly the word for this musical, with memorable songs and lines that have made their way into the English language and that are known globally. Therefore, a company that tackles this piece have to be on point and strive for perfection in their interpretation, and the youth of Carmarthen in this performance did just that.

The set was clever and used and choreographed by the stage crew excellently and it gave a lovely space for the entire cast to shine. It is important when approaching an iconic period piece to ensure that the costumes are right and a little more research would not have gone amiss here as some elements were not quite period and distracted slightly. The ensemble were great vocally with fantastic energy and they were all well-focused throughout. The stage was sometimes a little crowded in the large dance numbers but the cast coped admirably with this.

The principals were all strong with Holly Bradford and Ffion Moore giving lovely performances as the mothers Mrs Eynsford-Hill and Mrs Higgins respectively. Holly Lewis was a splendid Mrs Pearce, suitably exasperated with the master of the house and motherly towards Eliza, and Samuel Griffiths was an ever-doting and besotted Freddy. Nice cameo roles were taken by Luke Curtis as Harry and Joel Griffiths as Jamie. Gethin Hopely was a fabulous Zoltan Karpathy and “oozing charm from every pore, he oiled his way around the floor” beautifully in his characterisation.

Joseph Pilkington gave marvellous character to Alfred P. Dolittle, with good vocal ability and keen enthusiasm in the role. Harry Luke was the perfect Pickering, blundering and bafoon-like with the right amount of foppish camp and old-fashioned military manners and Catrin Lewis was quite brilliant as Eliza and the whole audience journeyed with her from flower girl to ‘princess’. Special mention must go to Jordan Dickin for his performance as Professor Henry Higgins. There was more than just a trace of the infamous Rex Harrison about this talented young man but he indeed made the role his own with perfect comic timing, wonderful stage presence and encapsulating the bombastic Higgins to a tee.

This was a lovely production enjoyed by a very appreciative audience and many thanks must go to the entire company.

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