Shrek

From the opening, this was a colourful and fun-filled show providing lots of laughs with impressive performances through drama, song and dance from all on stage and got the Theatre Group’s 60th Anniversary celebrations off to a great start!  The star of the show was indeed Shrek himself, brilliantly played by Ciaran Walshe who commanded the stage with great ease displaying a strong singing voice, matched with great comedic delivery.  His side-kick Donkey was superbly portrayed by Craig Inglis-McDonald who appeared to be relishing this role as the hoofed character who provided his unique comedic timing in supporting his new friend.  Take a bow Clare Walsh for an excellent performance in playing Princess Fiona who brought humour and pathos into the role in equal measure and her performance of ‘Morning Person’ was superb.  Kirsten Annie MacDonald may have been the evil Dragon but it was difficult not to love her as she sang ‘Forever’, another strong performance in the show.  And what can you say about Murray Keir as the diminutive Lord Farquaad apart from wondering how sore his knees would be as he spent the whole show on them – another great performance!  There was so much to like about this production, including the dancing Rats, the toe-tapping Blind Mice, young Fionas and young Shreks and all the Fairy Tale Characters including Pinocchio played by Collette Crampsey, with everyone appearing on stage working so hard to serve up a great production which was littered with magical moments.  The production travelled with pace throughout with very sleek scene changes and the production team should take a bow for getting so much from the cast.

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