Our House

This was my first visit to the Lyric for several years and to a Carmarthen Youth Opera production.

Firstly, I would like to thank the company for their very warm welcome which was much appreciated.

The show Our House is written by Tim Firth using the Lyrics and music of the group Madness and is the story of Joe Casey who when taking his girlfriend Sarah out on their first date breaks in to a development being built. The police are called, and the story follows the two directions he could have taken, either give himself up or run. It is a very ambitious story as the characters have to portray two separate versions of themselves.

On entering the auditorium, the stage was open with two chairs set on it either side downstage. The band were set under a scaffold and decking at the rear of the stage with a projection on the rear wall. I did wonder if the company were going to be using a bare performing area, but things changed as soon as the show started.

It began with a bang, with set flown in and a very energetic and enthusiastic opening number Our House, from the whole company.

The stage was full of over 50 young people having the time of their lives, for someone who has a passion of developing youngsters in an arts environment this was lovely to see.

The show was played at a lovely pace with the scene changes quick and easy due to the availability of the fly tower. The changes from black to white dependent on if it was Good Joe or Bad Joe were very effective.

I did feel sometimes the stage was very busy, given the amount of people on stage, and unfortunately on the evening we were there were some sound issues with the radio microphones and volume of the band, but these were relatively minor and did not affect the enjoyment of the performance.

The role of Joe was taken by Cai Jac Brown and what a job he did of it, I think I counted more than 25 costume changes mostly within seconds, or on the stage, congratulations to the wardrobe department on this achievement. Cai swapped between characters with ease and had a lovely stage presence, well done indeed on a great performance.

His love interest Sarah was played by Holly Bradford, who gave a good performance alongside Cai again having to swap character and respond to Good or Bad Joe.
The role of Joe’s dad was taken by Rhys Morgan, and it was obvious that Rhys was quite a bit older than the other characters as he played the role with maturity and presence which I really enjoyed.

Kath Casey was played by Gabby Roberts, I liked this performance and again the maturity and experience of this actress showed through. Gabby kept her accent well throughout the performance and worked well with the other characters.

These were supported with some lovely performances from, Bryn Richards, Steffan Williams-Evans, Ffion Moore and Cerys Howell-Cousins as Emmo, Lewis, Billie and Angie. I really enjoyed the Driving in my Car Number, very clever and innovative, this for me was one of the highlights of the performance.

I think a special mention must be made to Finn Radford, who took on the roles of Reecey, and Mr Pressman, so this young man had four different characters to play, some task, well done.

It was a very enjoyable evening in Carmarthen and whilst I would not personally class the performance as a Youth Production given the ages of some of the lead actors, it was fantastic to see so many young people on the stage.

This was a very complicated musical that was well handled by the society. Congratulations to all the production team on achieving a successful performance.

Thank you once again for your lovely welcome, and best wishes for your next production.

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