Our House

Based on the music of British ska band Madness with a big hint of Sliding Doors what if plot line, Our House was written by Tim Firth and features the music by Madness.

Tom Bolam as Good and Bad Joe, was simply outstanding, switching from character to character with ease and conviction, he commanded the stage brilliantly, his interaction with Sarah, Kaitlyn Heath, again playing the two possible story lines for her character with equal panache, excellent voices.

It took a while for the double potential path story lines to sink in which made for a confusing moment here and there, must be my age!

Without going into name listing mode, the whole cast as usual really worked for one another, the named leads in particular have a real camaraderie and chemistry, always really watchable enthusing all around them. I look forward to seeing Stoke Youth shows knowing there's a high performance level being set and attained as the norm.

Director / choreographer Kevin Clarke really drew out some exceptional performances from his young cast. The cast responded accordingly.

Musical Director Matthew Davis always delivers, all of his musicians in the band were really good, the ska feel of some of the numbers was spot on, although some strangeness to the snare drum sound out front early on was jarring. Stoke Youth's singers are always well rehearsed and it shows.

Sound was the only real weakness to this show, the Rep's in-house PA maybe okay for straight plays but it is woefully inadequate and incapable of handling this type of full on musical. It is just too small and too directional. Lighting, in stark contrast was great.

Excellent effective scenery flying tied with really impressive sets allowed the show a very good pace, the stage crew did a great job, very slick scene changes throughout. Costumes were good.

As usual at times you forgot this was a youth show, due to the superlative performance levels of the cast, superb.

 

 

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