Our House

There are two main ingredients to make this a good show, one is a leading man who can show not only the stamina to both create and deliver the part right through to the end and the second one is company who is able to bring this show to life.

Manor Operatic Society had no problems with either of these ingredients, they had a company more than worthy of taking the show from page to stage, they also had a more than worthy guy who was able to play the part of Joe Casey, James Smith delivered more than the goods from start to finish in aspects, singing, dancing and acting his way right through to the end, he was nothing short of brilliant.

This is a very fast moving show with many twists and turns as Joe Casey has to decide which way his life should be going, the right way or the wrong way, to depict this Joe is dressed in white for good and black for bad. This in itself causes many problems as there are many quick changes plus a body double at times. The costume department must have had many nightmares thinking how to do this but they all paid off and every change was done slickly and with ease as was the ingenious use of the body double who at times I was unsure as to whether it was James or Conner Povey, James’ double.

Joe has a love interest in the guise of Sarah played excellently by Emily Mae Hoyland, both she and James were able to bounce off each other to produce a very believable romance which, as many has its ups and downs. It was during one of the down times that Sarah meets Callum, a Scottish student who she meets at University. Callum was in the more than capable hands of Liam Gordon who was able to keep his Scottish accent up all the way through the show.

At school Joe has some mates, Emmo and Lewis played by Jack Skelton and Digory Holmes who together with Sarah’s friends, Billie and Angie played by Kirsty Taylor and Emma Flanagan were not only able to be a great support to both Joe and Sarah they were also able to deliver all the comedy in the production which was first class each time they entered the stage.

I mentioned earlier Joe has to decide whether to take the good way or the bad way, each time he chose the bad way his other friend from school, Reecey was always not far away. Chris Hanlon, who we usually see playing the comedy roles in Manor’s Panto and last year in Chitty, Chitty Bang, Bang was superb in this role. Each time he entered the stage sweeping his long black leather coat it seemed he was oozing evil as he strutted around laying the law down.

This show starts when Joe’s parents win a dance competition at their local club; Joe’s mum played by Sinead Summerhill tells his dad she is pregnant. Both Joe’s mum and dad, played by Simon Hance, were great in these parts delivering both their lines and songs with ease.

There are many characters in this piece and it would be impossible to mention them all, however Jonny White in the role of Mr Pressman deserves a mention as he was another who delivered the goods in this production which just kept giving and giving.

This was a very fast moving show but nothing was lost in the pace, each line was heard clearly and the energy which the whole cast had at the start was still there at the end which was received by a standing ovation during the “mega-mix” of all the songs.

Massive congratulations to the production team of Richard Bradford, Linda Kelly and Andy Collis who must be extremely proud of what they and the company have achieved. 

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