Our House

Our House is a musical often mentioned but one I have not seen so I was really looking forward to this production. Having seen Berwick’s previous production, I was eagerly anticipating this show and the whole cast did not disappoint their audience. From beginning until the final curtain, the cast gave 100% and were clearly delighted to perform for us.

Joe Casey is just out of school and takes the girl of his dreams, Sarah, out on a date.  His efforts to impress her result in the police being called and at this point we see Joe’s future from two different angles. The show takes us through the complexities of youth and we follow the fortunes and misfortunes of good Joe and bad Joe. We see how making wrong decisions, at such a young age, can shape our future. The score, highlighting the music and songs of Madness, kept our feet tapping as we watched Joe go down two different paths.  Eventually these paths come together and we are whisked back to his sixteenth birthday for a fantastic finale.

Joe (Jamie Macintosh) is a young man with considerable talent and a captivating voice. His performance as Joe Casey was indeed demanding. We saw him acting, singing and dancing his way seamlessly between the two sides of the character, with some very quick costume changes.  Very well done, I was exhausted watching the demands being placed on you.

The role of Sarah was well played by Rebekah Herbert. Rebekah has good acting skills and a charming singing voice. She is able to sing solo and her duet with Joe, singing It Must be Love, was captivating.

Lisa Summers gave an emotional performance as Joe’s mum Kath, with Andy Knight as deceased Dad. He was always in the background watching as his son made his own mistakes.

Well done to Matty Forster in his role as bad influence Reecey and Anton Bradbury as law student Callum.  Alice Heald as Emmo and Sean Mwachilenga as Lewis made a good comedy duo and Sandra Storey was well cast as Ms Pressman the property developer. She was determined to destroy the estate under the pretence of it being regeneration.

Jorge Cockburn as Billie, Kelis Bloomfield as Angie and Lucia O’Mara as Heather completed the line-up of principals and played their roles well and were a strong supporting team of performers.

I must mention the challenging role Cheryl Stewart had in both directing and choreographing this production. This was not an easy task, I feel sure. The stage set for Our House can appear lifeless and the costumes portray daily attire. Taking this into consideration there is not a great deal to distract the audience from the performers on stage but Cheryl had clearly put the cast through their paces to bring this production to life. My praises to Cheryl on such an achievement. I did enjoy the stage coming to life with some fantastic dance scenes.

The musical director, Mike Hardy and his band of musicians hardly had time to draw breath between the musical numbers. They provided excellent musical accompaniment.

This was an excellent production and my congratulations to all involved. I look forward to your next show and my invitation.

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