See No Evil

Wow!  I have to say that from the very start my expectations were exceeded.  Written by Lucy Charles, Roseanne Clegg, Rebekah Judson, David Knightly, Sevi Ledgard, Skye Wright and Charlotte Mann, through a series of improvisation sessions and delivered by this very talented group of young people, the show was amazing.
The series of cleverly scripted and directed scenes gave the audience an insight into the young people’s views of a public school trip to Italy.  The characterisation of all the parts was super.  Everyone involved gave their all and created some interesting, loveable and, in some cases, quite horrible characters.  There was potential with the roles to overact, but all the cast maintained their characters without overplaying them and ensured that the audience believed in them.
Interspersed with popular musical and ‘songs from the shows’, which clearly appealed to the young people who were singing them as well as the audience, it gave the young people the chance to demonstrate some great singing voices and also allowed the whole company to ‘throw some shapes’.  I really enjoyed their musical selections and felt it was of credit to the company that so many young people had the opportunity to perform solos.
The technical team had been hard at work and the innovative use of pre-recorded material was very well delivered.  The news reports lifted the performance to a new level and suddenly increased the tension in the show. 
Perhaps I should have guessed that there was going to be a deeper meaning and a twist to this show when it opened with “Tell Me It’s Not True” from Willy’s Russell’s Blood Brothers.  Yet the final twist came as a real shock to me and was extremely well delivered. There was a deep understanding of many current challenges faced by young people today and these were represented throughout this production, but all were delivered in a humorous way allowing the audience to reflect on the issues without feeling challenged or uncomfortable.
Overall I had a fantastic evening watching this very talented group of youngsters, who along with the adults who support them clearly put in a huge amount of hard work. However what also stood out on stage was the respect and empathy this relatively young group showed for each other.  No single member of the team sought to dominate the performance and they clearly supported and cared about each other. Well done to everyone involved.
 

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