Oliver Jr.

Watching the development of Castle Newnham School Theatre Company, 4Sixteen develop under the guidance of Luke Skeel has been one of the highlights of my NODA career. This year has seen him pass that baton on to Sophie Kirk as the Creative Director who looking back at my previous reviews has been involved with set design as well as the dance and Choreography over the past year’s shows. Clearly a very capable pair of hands to head up the company. This production was directed by Daniella Reynolds, who I note has also been part of the team brought in over the last year. She was assisted by PGCE Student in Drama, Elsie Johnson. And if this production of Lionel Barts masterpiece is anything to go by, 4Sixteen’s upward and onward progress will continue unabated under this team’s guidance.

The set for this show (as usual) was in the round on a clear studio floor with just the use of their cube boxes brought on and off for the various scenes. Sensible, as this stage had to accommodate a cast of around forty! Also extremely well organised from the very beginning with pupils holding large notices directing the audience to their various sections of seating and the obligatory phone reminders.  

Lighting design by the very experienced Year 11 Student Ben Cronin was of course spot on as is customary for this talented young man, the clever momentary blackout during Nancy’s murder was particularly impressive, And the equally experienced team of Jack Serino, Emily Green and Lyra Colliss made sure the sound was pitch perfect and on cue.

Costumes sourced by Sophie Kelk and Sam Smith were really good especially for The Artful Dodger and Nancy with great top hats for Sikes and the Artful Dodger. Also loved the grey outfits for the workhouse kids.

This particular school’s version of Oliver is more about the musical numbers than the dialogue, which was really only utilised for scene linking purpose, so Musical Directors, Emily Green, Sam Smith and Jack Serino sped us through some great routines with the familiar rousing songs starting with a particularly  eye catching version of Food Glorious Food from the whole of “Yellow Cast”, which were all cleverly choreographed by The Director Daniella Reynolds and her assistant Elsie Johnson.

Rui Fuertes Morentin did a great job in the title role as he goes from one bad situation to another. Cris Modafferi was an imposing Mr Bumble, James Leask revelled in the part of the evil Fagin, with ‘Reviewing The Situation’ and  you really wouldn’t want to come across Stanley Adebogun as Bill Sykes on a foggy 19th Century London street. If you are after a cheeky chappie then Lyra Hickman-Beagent is your go to Artful Dodger with an absolutely brilliant performance, building a great rapport with the audience. But if it’s a top-quality singing voice then the revelation of the evening was Phoebe Mann as Nancy, whose rendition of As Long As He Needs Me was spine tingling.

Despite such short scenes in which the characters had very little dialogue to develop their characters there were some lovely little cameos from other characters, to name but a few from this large cast, Tyler Byrne as Mr Brownlow, Clement Oliver and Sophie Cunningham as Mr and Mrs Sowberry, Gennardo Siani as Noah Claypole, Pearl Kerin as Widow Corney, Erin Bishop as Bet, Grace Breen as Mrs Bedwin particularly stood out.

Well done also to: Skye Saddington (Charlotte), Ambika Hughes (Chairman), Else Garvi Gorringe (Milkmaid, Betsy Wharton-Bird (strawberry Seller), Evie-Mae Searle (Rose Seller), Jale Gammon (Dr Grimwig), Elsie Lebrecht (Matron), Grace Rodgers (Old Sally), Matilda Boddington (Charlie Bates), Sadie Mitchell (Captain), Lyla Wosahlo (Nipper) and Olivia Greene (Handwalker). Also to the well drilled chorus that made up the Workhouse, Londoners and Fagin’s Gang. Great job all round.

To sum up, the singing in this show was outstanding and certainly demonstrated the depth of talent of 4Sixteen. If I may offer one piece of advice, it would be slow your dialogue delivery down, especially with such limited lines, to get across your scene, think about the meaning and emphasise it. But apart from that minor point this was great fun to watch and the whole show was thoroughly appreciated by a full house. Well done 4Sixteen, keep it up, it’s going well!  During the interval I was talking to a couple of pupils I’d seen in previous productions who took great pleasure in telling me all about the offers for various performing arts courses they had received. That sum’s up 4Sixteen for me, job jobbed.

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